dinichthys

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of gigantic arthrodirous Devonian fishes, regarded as pertaining to the family Coccosteidæ, in which the head-shield is comprised of one large median occipital plate, and three pairs of lateral and two pairs of anterior plates, the trunk also being plated. The dental plates are movable, without teeth, but both the mandibles and the maxillæ are sharpened to a cutting edge which may be cuspidate. The species are characteristic of the Devonian black shales in Ohio and New York, and European species are also known. Head-shields have been found in Ohio which measure nearly 4 feet in length.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Paleon.) A genus of large extinct Devonian ganoid fishes. In some parts of Ohio remains of the Dinichthys are abundant, indicating animals twenty feet in length.