What animals were dominant during the Devonian period?

The Devonian saw major evolutionary advancements by fishes with diversification and dominance in both marine and fresh water environments—the Devonian is also known as the “Age of Fishes.” Jawless fish and placoderms (such as the giant 33 ft Duncleosteus) reach peak diversity and sharks, lobe-finned, and ray-finned ...

1. What group of animals is the Devonian Period best known for?
2. What type of organisms were dominant after the Devonian extinction?
3. Which group of animals made its first appearance on land during the Devonian?
4. What was abundant during the Devonian period?
5. What animals lived in the Silurian period?
6. What are some fun facts about the Devonian period?
7. Which animals survived the Devonian extinction?
8. What organisms went extinct during the late Devonian extinction?
9. What went extinct during the Devonian period?
10. What was the first animal to walk on land?
11. What animals were alive during the Carboniferous Period?
12. What animals lived in the Mississippian Period?
13. What era did reptiles dominate Earth?
14. What fossils were found in the Devonian Period?

What group of animals is the Devonian Period best known for?

The Devonian, part of the Paleozoic era, is otherwise known as the Age of Fishes, as it spawned a remarkable variety of fish. The most formidable of them were the armored placoderms, a group that first appeared during the Silurian with powerful jaws lined with bladelike plates that acted as teeth.

What type of organisms were dominant after the Devonian extinction?

The Devonian extinction ushered in not only the land-bound tetrapods, but also the animals that command the marine vertebrate world to this day: ray-finned (or bony) fish, and cartilaginous fish, like sharks, rays and chimeras.

Which group of animals made its first appearance on land during the Devonian?

Early tetrapods, ancestors of land-dwelling vertebrates, first appeared during the Devonian.

What was abundant during the Devonian period?

Among the Protozoa, both Foraminifera and Radiolaria were well represented, and sponges were locally abundant. ... Stromatoporoids (a type of sponge with a layered skeleton composed of calcium carbonates) such as Amphipora were common rock builders in the mid-Devonian of the Northern Hemisphere.

What animals lived in the Silurian period?

Mollusks, bryozoans, and especially brachiopods flourished, but trilobites and graptolites were on the decline. Invertebrates remained dominant, vertebrate fossils are rare. Fish with moveable jaws appear, and the first bony fish (osteichthyans) evolved.

What are some fun facts about the Devonian period?

During the Devonian the evolution of fish into tetrapods occurred. Various terrestrial arthropods also became established. The first seed-bearing plants spread across dry land, forming huge forests. The supercontinent of Gondwana was to the south, and the continent of Siberia to the north.

Which animals survived the Devonian extinction?

Although freshwater fish were barely affected, marine animals were much more so. Placoderms, for example, did not survive, acanthodians were decimated, and almost all agnathans vanished. Numerous brachiopods became extinct, conodonts all but disappeared, and only one family of trilobites survived.

What organisms went extinct during the late Devonian extinction?

This mass extinction affected ammonites and trilobites, as well as jawed vertebrates, including tetrapod ancestors. The Hangenberg is linked to the extinction of 44% of high-level vertebrate clades, including all placoderms and most sarcopterygians, and the complete turnover of the vertebrate biota.

What went extinct during the Devonian period?

Dunkleosteus terrelli is one of the species of armored fish called placoderms that went extinct at the end of the Devonian Period. The brunt of this extinction was borne by marine invertebrates. As in the Ordovician Extinction, many species of corals, trilobites, and brachiopods vanished.

What was the first animal to walk on land?

The first animals that walked on land were called tetrapods. First fossils of animals that could walk on land were found in a place called Willie's Hole in Scotland. The first creature believed to have walked on land is known as Ichthyostega.

What animals were alive during the Carboniferous Period?

These included the crossopterygians (lobe-finned fishes), dipnoi (lungfishes), and palaeoniscoids (small ray-finned fishes). In the Devonian, the crossopterygians and dipnoi were the dominant forms, but the palaeoniscoids dominated the Carboniferous assemblages. All these groups have living relatives.

What animals lived in the Mississippian Period?

Common Mississippian fossils found in Kentucky include corals (Cnidaria), bryozoans, brachiopods, trilobites, snails (gastropods), clams (pelecypods), squid-like animals (cephalopods), crinoids and blastoids (echinoderms), fish teeth (Pisces), and microscopic animals like ostracodes and conodonts.

What era did reptiles dominate Earth?

During the Mesozoic, or "Middle Life" era, life diversified rapidly and giant reptiles, dinosaurs and other monstrous beasts roamed the Earth. The period, which spans from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago, was also known as the age of reptiles or the age of dinosaurs.

What fossils were found in the Devonian Period?

Common Devonian fossils found in Kentucky include sponges (Porifera), corals (Cnidaria), bryozoans, brachiopods, trilobites, snails (gastropods), clams (pelecypods), squid-like animals (cephalopods), crinoids (Echinoderms), and microscopic animals like ostracodes and conodonts.