Squalicorax

Squalicorax
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Two Squalicorax and a Cretoxyrhina circling around a dead Claosaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Anacoracidae
Cappetta,1987
Genus: Squalicorax
Species

See text.

Squalicorax is a genus of extinct lamniform shark known to have lived during the Cretaceous period.

Etymology

The name Squalicorax is derived from the Latin "squalo" for shark and the Greek "corax" for raven.

Description

These sharks are of medium size, up to 5 meters (usually around 2 meters) in length. The body were similar to the modern gray sharks, but the shape of the teeth is strikingly similar to that of a tiger shark. The teeth are numerous, relatively small, with a curved crown and serrated, up to 2.5 – 3 cm in height (the only representative of the Mesozoic Lamniformes with serrated teeth). Large numbers of fossil teeth have been found in Europe, North Africa, and North America.

Squalicorax was a coastal predator, but also scavenged as evidenced by a Squalicorax tooth found embedded in the metatarsal (foot) bone of a terrestrial hadrosaurid dinosaur that most likely died on land and ended up in the water.[1] Other food sources included turtles, mosasaurs, ichthyodectes and other bony fishes and sea creatures.

Description of selected species

Squalicorax pristodontus tooth from the Cretaceous of Morocco.
Squalicorax falcatus
Fossilized vertebrae and pectoral fins of a Squalicorax shark, from Kansas, abt. 70 - 80 mya, at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington
Squalicorax sp.

The following are the best studied American species for which relatively complete skeletons are described:

The world's largest and most complete semi-articulated fossil of Squalicorax was found in 2014 in stores of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba, in Canada, where it is now displayed. It measures more than 3 metres in length.[2]

List of species

References

Sources

External links

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