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The real fish

What is a Sacabambaspis?

The fish in our game is real. Or it was, about 460 million years ago. Here's the short version of what we know about it.

Cartoon Sacabambaspis from Jawless Fishtank
Scientific name
Sacabambaspis janvieri
When it lived
Ordovician period, about 460 million years ago
Where
Shallow seas around Gondwana. Fossils from Bolivia, Argentina, Australia and Oman
Size
About 25 to 35 cm (10 to 14 inches)
Jaws
None. That's the whole point.
First described
1986

A fish from before fish had jaws

Sacabambaspis was an early vertebrate, which is the big group of animals with backbones that now includes everything from sharks to people. It lived in the Ordovician period, long before dinosaurs and long before anything had crawled out onto land. Fish at the time hadn't evolved jaws yet, so Sacabambaspis got by with a simple mouth opening. It likely filtered or sucked up small bits of food from the water and the sea floor.

Its head was covered in a shield of bony plates about 10 cm long, a bit like armor. Behind that was a scaly body and a tail, and that tail was its only fin. No paired fins like a modern fish has, so it probably wasn't the most graceful swimmer.

Where the name comes from

The first fossils were found in the Anzaldo Formation near the town of Sacabamba, east of Cochabamba in Bolivia. "Aspis" is Greek for shield, a common ending for armored fish names. So Sacabambaspis is roughly "the shield fish from Sacabamba." It was named in 1986 by paleontologists Pierre-Yves Gagnier, Alain Blieck and Gabriela Rodrigo, in a paper titled, very fittingly, "First Ordovician vertebrate from South America." Since then more fossils have turned up in Argentina, Australia and Oman, all places that were part of the old supercontinent Gondwana.

Why it looks so surprised

This is the part everyone cares about. Sacabambaspis had two small eyes set right at the very tip of its head, almost like headlights, sitting above that round jawless mouth. When people build models of it, the result is a fish that looks like it just walked in on something it shouldn't have.

There's a model of it at the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki. In 2023, photos of that model's face spread across the internet, especially in Japan, and it turned into a full on meme. Plushies, fan art, keychains, the works. Our friends at Jawless Fish make some of the best plushies of it (you can buy them at jawless.fish), and that's how this whole game started.

Sacabambaspis in Jawless Fishtank

In Jawless Fishtank you raise your own little Sacabambaspis from a baby to old age. We kept the face and the vibe, and the in game description even lists it at 25 cm. We did take some liberties. The real fish probably didn't come in pink, and it definitely didn't eat chili peppers.

You can play it on Steam, the App Store or Google Play, and see every color we made.

Sources and further reading

  • Gagnier, P.Y., Blieck, A. and Rodrigo, G. (1986). First Ordovician vertebrate from South America. Geobios, 19(5), 629 to 634.
  • Pradel, A., Sansom, I.J., Gagnier, P.Y., Cespedes, R. and Janvier, P. (2007). The tail of the Ordovician fish Sacabambaspis. Biology Letters, 3(1), 72 to 75.
  • Sacabambaspis on Wikipedia

Sacabambaspis questions

Is Sacabambaspis a real animal?
Yes. Sacabambaspis janvieri was a real fish that lived during the Ordovician period, roughly 468 to 453 million years ago. Its fossils were first found in Bolivia, and more have turned up in Argentina, Australia and Oman.

How big was Sacabambaspis?
Somewhere around 25 to 35 centimeters long, so roughly 10 to 14 inches. The armored head shield alone was about 10 cm. Small enough for a home aquarium, if it were still around.

Why does Sacabambaspis look so surprised?
Its two small eyes sat right at the very front of its head, close together above a mouth with no jaw. Put that face on a plush or a museum model and it reads as permanent shock.

Did Sacabambaspis have jaws?
No. It lived before fish evolved jaws. Its mouth was a simple opening, and it probably fed on small bits of food from the water or the seafloor.

Can you keep a Sacabambaspis as a pet?
Not a real one, it has been extinct for hundreds of millions of years. You can raise a virtual one in Jawless Fishtank, or get a plush from Jawless Fish.