bettalbimarginata reblogged
Another sketch brought to you by #paleostream
"DON'T BE AFRAID, the swarm said as it hovered closer. Barely as fish recognizable bodies moving up and down in the current.
Maraldichthys, a pycnodontiform fish and one of the strangest vertebrates the world has ever seen.
When I search the web for 'maraldicthys', I get only a handful of Tumblr posts like this one. Is this a real animal?
Maybe you have a typo in there? But oh yes it's real, there are just few people who dare to reconstruct it. Also look up it's sister taxon Gebrayelichthys (here my restoration)
Fish really have gone through a whole bunch of iterations of “well, what happens if I’m THIS shape”, haven’t they.