Habitat
Figure 1. Map of the world, with location of fossils for Dunkleosteus terrelli (Encyclopedia of Life, 2012).
Fossils of Dunkleosteus terrelli were discovered near North America, Poland, Belgium, and Morocco. Refer to the map above.
Dunkleosteus terrelli was a marine organism that lived during the Late Devonian Period. Other marine organisms include a blue whale and puffer fish, which can relate to D. terrelli because they live in a similar environment today. D. terrelli was thought to live closer to the bottom of the ocean because of the types of organisms they can be related to. These relations can be seen on our Classification page. Placoderms were known to live as bottom dwellers but further research disproves this hypothesis. Some research has been found providing evidence that adult D. terrelli lived in deep waters of the ocean, where the adolescent D. terrelli lived in shallower waters (Carr & Jackson, 2008). D. terrelli was not a slow moving organism as previously hypothesized like other cold blooded organisms, such as dinosaurs, during this time period (Carr & Jackson, 2008). D. terrelli were an extreme predator and was active one unlike some organisms were thought not to be during this time (Carr & Jackson, 2008).