Megamastax is a lobe-finned bony fish from the Pridoli-Early Devonian of China. It was named in 2014 by Brian Choo and his team. It was the world's first vertebrate apex predator, and it was the biggest vertebrate during the Silurian.
Physiology[]
Megamastax resembled the generic lobe-finned fish. It was a coelacanth-like fish with a bulky body, fleshy, lobe-like fins, and a semi-small head. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.
Diet[]
Megamastax was a predator, preying on trilobites, small orthoconic cephalopods, small eurypterids, and smaller fish. Its front teeth were used for catching prey, while its back teeth were used for crushing it, meaning that it was capable of both tearing smaller fish apart and cracking the shells of mollusks and arthropods.
Ecology[]
Not much is known about Megamastax.