Squalicorax Pristodontus 1.jpg

Squalicorax pristodontus tooth

Morocco
Cretaceous Period (65 - 146 Million years ago)
Squalicorax is a genus of extinct lamniform shark known to have lived during the Cretaceous period. These sharks are of medium size, up to 5 m (usually around 2 m) in length. Their bodies 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.  Other food sources included turtles, mosasaurs, ichthyodectes, and other bony fishes and sea creatures. Squalicorax pristodontus (Agassiz, 1843) is the largest species, more than 5 m long. From the size of its largest known teeth, it can be estimated that S. pristodontus grew to 5 m (16.5 ft) in length. It lived during the late Campanian to early Maastrichtian of North America, France, the Netherlands, Egypt, Morocco, and Madagascar. The relatively complete remains (vertebrae and fragments of jaws) have been found in marine sediments in North America. It is the species with the largest teeth, these teeth being loosely spaced and relatively very large in comparison with other species. In this genus of sharks studies have shown no precise correlation between the size of the teeth and the length of the body. They could eat relatively large prey and carrion.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Lamniformes
Family:     †Anacoracidae
Genus:     †Squalicorax
Species: †pristodontus