Coccosteus cuspidatus

Coccosteus cuspidatus Miller ex Agassiz MS

This medium sized placoderm is very common in the Sandwick Fish Bed

As the fish is covered with dermal plates it is often found as a heap of disarticulated plates together with a more or less well preserved tail. The skin covering the tail is often only visible as a vague smear. The jaws have tiny teeth like structures and it could probably prey on small acanthodians and juvenile specimens. Since the fish is built like a bottom dweller, with its flat ventral belly, mouth on the ventral side, it may have scavenged on dead fish or small invertebrates. It is also suggested in the literature that it was also an ambush predator.