Alienacanthus - The Fish with the Ultimate Underbites

With powerful shearing jaws and armoured faces that really stand out amongst other fish both of the time they were around and today, placoderms are some of the paleozoic's most iconic animals, and for good reason.
One of these animals is the very bizarre Alienacanthus, their name meaning alien spine, are animals that have recently undergone quite the drastic change in terms of how we perceive their appearance. First described in 1957 from remains found in Poland, and with more later described from Morocco, during the Late Devonian period, these localities were all submerged coastlines, and regions where animals like Alienacanthus could thrive.
Many of the fossils however were quite fragmentary and offered a limited detail on what they would have looked like in life, that is at least until now in 2024, where their "spines" were actually a part of a massive underbite. I hope you enjoy.
Background music:
The Gentlemen
Hip Hop Vlog 90s Jazz Background Music Slow _ No Copyright Upbeat MusicMake sure to like and subscribe to learn more about our wonderful world!
Sources:
royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/sc...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alienac...
fishlab.ucdavis.edu/category/...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2860672/
betterknowafish.com/2013/07/0...
www.app.pan.pl/archive/publis...
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.
All video/game content is recorded and edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary and social satire.

[@seaneatsapples]

what a silly little guy

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

A very silly fish :)

[@kahonk269]

This fish has been mewing since the Paleozoic era 🤫🧏

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

And achieved some damn good results before being snuffed out too.

[@TheAnimalKingdom-tq3sz]

Hard to believe this guy, discovered in the 1940s and likely forgotten by everyone, having the fame it deserves

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Shows how our understanding of things in paleontology can be utterly flipped on their heads when we just take a more thorough look at what we have. I'm really hoping this video does well so more can learn about them. They really deserve it. :)

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

The original 1957 doesn't even have a reconstruction of the original view unfortunately, but it's great they got another look at.

[@edwardskerl5774]

Thank you for timing. I need videos after work too!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

I'm glad that the timing worked out there! Always nice to end a day with some weird fish. :)

[@elizabethpemberton8445]

I found myself accompanied by a halfbeak while snorkeling! It was so cool!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Oh awesome! That sounds like a really nice experience. :0

[@mann_man8556]

That fish really locked in 🗿

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

On the looksmaxxing grindset

[@definitelynotnickiminaj5391]

lil bro took mewing a bit too serious 😭🙏

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

They got so far, but even that wasn't enough to save them from inevitable extinction. :(

[@flamencoprof]

Here in NZ, I was brought up in a harbour suburb called Point Chevalier. The very "point" was called The Piper Rocks, because with a small rod and very small hook, you could easily catch a small fish we called Piper (Hyporhamphus ihi). They had the same long (red-tinged) lower jaw and a tiny upper jaw, just like the subject of this video. My Grandmother somehow knew how to culture a supply of fly maggots, which were the best bait. Once, my father, uncle and I caught about 50 on one full tide from a dinghy off the point. They were good to fry or souse in vinegar.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Very interesting story! That species is also endemic to New Zealand, which is even more neat. Getting 50 of them in one go must have been a pretty incredible experience.

[@flamencoprof]

@@HenrythePaleoGuy Yes it was. I know it was due to the knowledge of the men, who were brought up there. IDK if Piper are still present, as the catch was in the late 50s/early 60s, and I now live in the rural far West of the city.

[@FaustLimbusCompany]

🗣 Alienacanthus lost its mewing streak

[@jeremypope9534]

If I remember correctly, a comedian had an entire bit about these guys.

[@kuitaranheatmorus9932]

I love this prehistoric fish and am so glad you did a video on it

[@christianmanka3884]

It’s kinda cute

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

This is very true.

[@coolmar4000]

I like this fish thanks for sharing

[@purplehaze2358]

These things are living shitposts and I love them.

[@thebloodyenglish6620]

One of the weirdest lower jaws I've seen on a fish is Gnathodolus bidens (a small freshwater fish from South America and i knew a guy who had some). Its the only member of its genus and at first glance doesn't look too weird just slightly funky as the lower jaw isn't as dramatic as say halfbeaks. But when they start looking for food its freaky.... The mouth is slightly up turned and most of the jaw structure doesn't look too weird especially when they're just chilling, looks like its got a little wart on its mouth. But when feeding the tip of the lower jaw extends and is fully mobile (imagine how Aye Aye's long finger or Woodpeckers tongues move in the wood when looking for invertebrates this lower jaw extension moves in the same way). It probes around rocks with this super mobile tip probing for inverts and once it finds one the hooks on its lower jaw snags the inverts and pulls it back into its mouth. Abd because of how the mouth is shapped its can do this from any angle. Like in a normal up right position with the jaw probing straight ahead, downwards or even straight above (like its its tucked up in a craves it can search the roof of the "cave" while still in a normal upright position). It can also do this when in a fully vertical position with its head pointing straight down or even upside down swimming belly up, sideways etc. They're really cool and honestly I think have the weirdest lower jaw of any animal. Another one to look up is the Celebes Halfbeak, a species I used to breed when i had a fish breeding room. They're a small, livebrearing, freshwater species which start off as a plan brown fish with jaws similar to a Gar. But as the males mature the lower jaw grows a fleshy mass which first extends quite significantly outwards but then curles back over itself abd turns jet black. The rest of the fish keeps the brown on its body but develops very dramatic reds, pure blacks abd blues on various parts of the fins. *Edit* when checking the spelling of Gnathodolus bidens I saw a really cool video from the channel called "Below Water" has just uploaded a video 4 days ago (as of writing this comment) showing how this mobile jaw moves! Really recommend checking it out if this seems interesting to anyone. Skip to the 8min mark if you just want to see this species (he covers two other similar species earlier in the video).

[@Alberad08]

Thanks a lot for this interesting short feature - reminded me that have to trim my chin beard again.😄

[@rickharold7884]

That’s cool. Thx!

[@tahliam7377]

R.I.P. Alienacanthus, you would have loved orthodontic surgery.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Born 371 million years too early.

[@stopgont7360]

Mewing king

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

💪

[@The_PokeSaurus]

Top 10 prehistoric animal chins? With Giganotosaurus and Udanoceratops.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

They're definitely up there. Carcharodontosaurus is of course on there, as would Xenosmilus and Uintatherium.

[@Titus-as-the-Roman]

Ballyhoo, a pelagic bait fish, similar to flying fish has this kind of jaw.

[@ChaseDaOrk3767]

Mew-acanthus

[@DomiK-im3su]

the only reason we dont have any other animal like it is because they had to hold the mewing streek🤫🧏‍♂

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Only a select few could achieve the look, lol.

[@artiomvv569]

Beavis fish

[@lizerdspherex]

Thank you, I thought I was the only one.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Very true. XD

[@WinterroSP]

Hapsburg fish

[@TylerHarris-yy7uf]

He mewed too much

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Too close to the sun. 😔

[@wcdeich4]

Why did some of the fossil Jaws you showed have a longer upper jaw too?

[@BrutalDeath007]

The Chadfish

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Indeed 💪

[@HassanMohamed-rm1cb]

Hey Henry The PaleoGuy, why don’t you think of a suggestion making a KZbin Videos all about Dakosaurus, the “Biter Lizard”, an Extinct Prehistoric Metriorhynchid (the Marine Crocodile) the “Godzilla” of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous Seas coming up next?!👍👍👍👍👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Duly noted!

[@eugenehollis1067]

Upside down swordfush

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Pretty much!

[@Lisos_mods]

Please do a video on alamosaurus.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Will note them down for a future video.

[@Lisos_mods]

@@HenrythePaleoGuy awesome!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

All good! I have well over 100+ ideas to go over, so I can hopefully get to them soon. :)

[@leoornstein3963]

Bro mew too hard 🤫🧏

[@kreation2021]

Could you do New Zealand endemic bat species, including the one that went extinct??

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

Reverse swordfish.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Essentially! Super neat animals. It's great halfbeaks are alive today so we can at least see how animals like this appear in life, even if they're using their lower jaws for differing reasons.

[@dumoulin11]

0:42 so during the Devonian there were landmasses that are recognizable as modern day Greenland, Quebec and Hudson's Bay?

[@HassanMohamed-rm1cb]

Hey Henry The PaleoGuy, why don’t you think of a suggestion making a KZbin Videos all about Dakosaurus, the “Biter Lizard”, an Extinct Prehistoric Metriorhynchid (the Marine Crocodile) of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous Seas coming up next?!👍👍👍👍👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@carlosalvendia5860]

He could just do a full bid on marine crocs to talk about other creatures like metriorhynchus