During this time, the genus became quite successful, and specimens have been found worldwide. First appearing during the Permian period, Hybodus survived into the later stages of the Cretaceous. This paints a picture of Hybodus as a generalistic opportunist, a strategy that served the species well. Some appear to have been adapted for gripping slippery prey, while the others were more suited to crushing shells. While Hybodus does not catch the untrained eye in the same way Stethacanthus does, this prehistoric shark is fascinating to paleo ichthyologists. Earlier fossils hail from the Late Devonian, and Stethacanthus species appear to have survived into the later stages of the Carboniferous. Not only was this genus’ geographic distribution wide, its temporal distribution was too. Fossils ascribed to Stethacanthus have been found in Asia, Europe, and North America. Its most notable feature is the anvil-like dorsal fin, the purpose of which is still the subject of debate. Stethacanthus is one of the most bizarre-looking Chondrichthys ever. Leedsichthys is thought to have been a filter feeder like the largest extant fish and used a gill basket to extract food from the ocean. However, not all of them were this massive, and individuals above fourteen meters in length were probably not common. It is estimated that the largest Leedsichthys could have grown up to sixteen meters.
Leedsichthys is possibly the largest fish ever, and certainly the largest known bony fish. While this resulted in the following list being extremely competitive, it is better in this writer’s view than multiple lists that are boring due to the fact that only their top five or six entries are significant. Therefore, it did not seem wise to create separate lists pertaining to taxonomic classes. While the subject of “prehistoric fish” is enormous, much more so than any of the other top ten lists made to date, the amount of prehistoric fish that are well known to the general public is quite slim.
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