placoderm

From placo- +‎ -derm, after German Placoderm.

placoderm (plural placoderms)

1. (paleontology) A member of an extinct paraphyletic class (Placodermi) of jawed fish with armored heads and thoraces; the group lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods. [from 19th c.]
   • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 12:

     Out to sea are placoderms – heavily armoured fish, some of them more than six metres (twenty feet) long and equipped with massive, powerful jaws.

placoderm (comparative more placoderm, superlative most placoderm)

1. (paleontology) Pertaining to the paraphyletic class Placodermi. [from 19th c.]
   • 2018 January 24, Elsa Panciroli, The Guardian:

     Research published recently on placoderm fish fossils from Scottish Devonian lakes (around 365 myo) found evidence for how this extinct group of animals copulated.

• Placodermi

• proclamed

Borrowed from French placoderme or German Plakoderm.

placoderm m (plural placodermi)

1. placoderm