"The oldest fossil related to all modern vertebrates, the ostracoderm a jawless, bony-plated fish, dates to about 490 million years ago."
"From out of the kaleidoscope of a thousand visual images that crowded in on her, Dax got a stronger flash of Manan'Agar's bony-plated face, disappearing into an alien that had apparently already swallowed the rest of him."
"It was still alive when it hit the ground, but Rhes was astraddle it, pulling back the bony-plated head to cut the soft throat underneath."