MeargleSchmeargl Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 Helicoprion's bottom jaw is easily the most bizarre of all sharks. With a bottom jaw shaped like a circular saw, just how did this shark kill/eat prey? Did its bottom jaw lash out to inflict debilitating flesh wounds, or did it do something else? Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 I think this shark lashed its jaw out to tickle its prey into submission. 3 I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 CT scans of fossils have revealed how the tooth whorl fits into the jaw. Here's a picture from "Jaws for a spiral-tooth whorl: CT images reveal novel adaptation and phylogeny in fossil Helicoprion". Also, its not a shark. Its related to Chimaeras. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 The 'fiddlehead' interpretation is but one of many this mystery shark presents. I have wondered whether the 'coil' mightn't have been an early attempt at a tooth conveyor belt, performing the same function as today's files and rows? In that speculation, the coil would have been proximal in the jaw. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 Blast from the past! Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*THEO* Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 7 minutes ago, Al Dente said: CT scans of fossils have revealed how the tooth whorl fits into the jaw. Here's a picture from "Jaws for a spiral-tooth whorl: CT images reveal novel adaptation and phylogeny in fossil Helicoprion". Also, its not a shark. Its related to Chimaeras. This will probably ruin the childhood of someone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 5 hours ago, MeargleSchmeargl said: Helicoprion's bottom jaw is easily the most bizarre of all sharks. Hey! Edestus has a funky jaw too! Actually, almost all Eugeneodontids do. “...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin Happy hunting, Mason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey P Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 I was at the Museum of the Earth last September and they had an entire exhibit on Helicoprion with fossil specimens, diagrams and a model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Interesting that I did not see this thread before I posted the fossil pic this morning. Mine came from the History Museum in Salt Lake. They had very little information about it though. This is a very weird shark and speculation on how they worked. As with most sharks very little of the body is in the fossil record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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