''Draconichthys elegans'' (meaning "elegant dragon fish") a selenosteid arthrodire placoderm from the Late

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during th ...

Kellwasserkalk facies of the

Anti-Atlas Mountains The Anti-Atlas ( ar, الأطلس الصغير, shi, Aṭlas Mẓẓiyn), also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlanti ...

of what is now Morocco. During the Late Devonian, the region would have been a shallow, algae-dimmed sea. ''D. elegans'' differs from all other selenosteids in the structure of its gnathal plates, which are comparatively large, and have long teeth-like prongs. This feature strongly suggests that it was a predatory animal, and used its pronged gnathal plates to prevent seized prey from squirming out of its mouth. The anatomy of its skull, however, is otherwise very typical of selenosteids, being very similar to the genera ''

Enseosteus ''Enseosteus'' is an extinct genus of small selenosteid arthrodire placoderms known from the Upper Frasnian Kellwasserkalk facies of Late Devonian Germany and Morocco. ''Enseosteus'' is very similar to the other Kellwasserkalk selenosteids, th ...

'', '' Rhinosteus'', and '' Walterosteus''. ''D. elegans'' is currently known from a single skull about 112 millimetres in length.

References

Selenosteidae Placoderms of Africa Fossil taxa described in 2011 {{Placoderm-stub