Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'strophodus'.
-
Time for the Bullheads ! Show us your Heterodontus fossils
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in Member Collections
The next shark on the list to start a thread for are the Bullhead Sharks. The order is represented by a lone extant genus, Heterodontus, and a few extinct genera. Heterodontus is a cute little shark. One of my personal favorites partially because they look like they should not be a rugged survivor but they really are. They have been around since the early Jurassic and basically have not had to change much to survive. They are not the torpedo shaped super shark for sure. They are small, sluggish bottom feeders but they are incredibly well adapted to their environment. They have very powerful jaws designed for crushing shelled prey but they are also opportunistic feeders that will also eat small fish. Some are strictly nocturnal and some are capable of "walking"along the sea floor using pelvic fins. Extant genera are limited to the Pacific and Indian Oceans though the fossil record shows they used to live in the Atlantic Ocean. Heterodontus has been proven to be a bit of collecting challenge. The small size of the teeth and the rather unshark-like appearance probably contribute to this. They are not common despite the long history of the order. There are a few locations where they appear to be pretty common. They are common in the Round Mountain Silt if you are willing to do micro matrix searches. I see a pretty fair number of teeth from the Eocene of the UK too. Lateral teeth are larger and pretty easy to identify. The anterior teeth are usually pretty small. I used to confuse them with ray teeth on occasion lol Fin spines can be found as well. We have one from STH and I have seen one from Chile as well. The hope with all of these posts is to encourage TFF members to show off their fossils and build knowledge. I am really curious to see what Bullhead fossils are lurking the collections here and what interesting information is shared !!!- 56 replies
-
- heterodontiformes
- heterodontus
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with: