Question 1

How do you say Gyracanthus?

Accepted Answer

Gyracanthus is pronounced JY-ruh-KAN-thus. Break it into three chunks: JY (like the letter J), ruh (a quick soft syllable), and KAN-thus (rhymes with 'can thus'). The stress lands hardest on KAN. Once you say it a few times out loud it starts to feel natural, and you will definitely impress any paleontologist you meet.

Question 2

What does Gyracanthus mean?

Accepted Answer

The name Gyracanthus comes from two Greek words. 'Gyra' means spiral or curved, and 'acanthus' means spine or thorn. So the full name basically means 'curved spine' or 'spiral spine.' Scientists chose this name because the most distinctive thing about Gyracanthus was its large, twisted, ridged fin spines that no other fish had quite the same way.

Question 3

Was Gyracanthus a shark?

Accepted Answer

Gyracanthus is often called a 'spiny shark' because it belonged to the acanthodians, but it was not actually a true shark. Acanthodians were a separate, older group of jawed fish that are more primitive than sharks. In fact, acanthodians like Gyracanthus are considered some of the earliest jawed vertebrates ever to exist on Earth, making them ancestors of a much wider group of animals than just sharks.

Question 4

How old is Gyracanthus?

Accepted Answer

Gyracanthus first appeared in the fossil record around 393 million years ago during the Devonian period. It survived all the way until about 299 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. That means Gyracanthus was alive for roughly 94 million years, which is an incredibly long run for any species. For comparison, the entire dinosaur age lasted about 165 million years.

Question 5

Where was Gyracanthus found?

Accepted Answer

Fossils of Gyracanthus have been found in at least five countries: the United Kingdom, Bolivia, South Africa, the United States, and Ireland. This wide spread of locations shows that Gyracanthus was not confined to one small area. The ancient oceans and river systems during the Devonian and Carboniferous allowed this fish to spread across what were then very different arrangements of continents.

Question 6

Did Gyracanthus survive the Devonian extinction?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and that is one of the most remarkable things about Gyracanthus. The Late Devonian mass extinction wiped out roughly 75 percent of all species on Earth and is considered one of the five worst extinction events in the planet's history. Gyracanthus somehow made it through and continued living into the Carboniferous period. Scientists are not entirely sure why some acanthodians survived while so many other animals did not.

Question 7

What did Gyracanthus eat?

Accepted Answer

The exact diet of Gyracanthus is not definitively known because detailed fossils of its jaws and stomach contents are extremely rare. Based on what we know about acanthodians in general, Gyracanthus was most likely a predator or opportunistic feeder that ate smaller fish and aquatic invertebrates. Its position in the water column and its reasonably large spines suggest it was an active swimmer and probably a capable hunter in the Devonian and Carboniferous seas.

Question 8

Why are only spines found and not the whole fish?

Accepted Answer

Gyracanthus, like many acanthodians, had a skeleton that was partly made of cartilage and softer tissues that decay quickly after death and rarely fossilize. The fin spines, however, were made of much denser, more mineralized material similar to bone, so they survived millions of years buried in rock when the rest of the body had long since disappeared. This is actually a common challenge in paleontology: the toughest parts of an animal survive, and scientists have to use those pieces to reconstruct the whole picture.

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