Page 166 - It Can't Be True! Animals! - Unbelievable Facts About Amazing Animals (DK)

166

What animal is

a living fossil?

The nautilus of today

shares many features with

its ancestors, prehistoric

nautiloids. It has changed

so little over time that it is

known as a living fossil. 400 million years ago...

Prehistoric nautiloids,
such as Charactoceras,
had smooth, coiled shells,
much like today’s nautilus.
Dunkleosteus was a
fierce, bony-plated fish
that lived in the late
Devonian period, nearly
400 million years ago.
Stethacanthus was a shark-like
fish with a distinctive dorsal
fin. It died out more than
300 million years ago.

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