Golden Flying Shark From Illinois

[jdp]

Gorgeous iniopterygian! 

 

 

 

Michael Coates at University of Chicago might be a good contact.

 

 

[Missourian]

Beautiful shark!

 

 

[Plantguy]

Hey Rob, well this one certainly is another jaw dropper...not just a tooth but a shark specimen..seriously? Simply amazing! Keep us posted on getting it ID'd/described. Continued hunting success! 

 

Regards, Chris 

[Plax]

Gerard Case was the second author on the original description of Iniopterygians. Jerry also did the artwork used in the publication. He is still actively publishing.

His email is:

fosshark@sccoast.net

[Carl]

Whoops! I thought I had posted Dr. Maisey's comments:

 

Yes it really is a spectacular specimen. We have a few scraps, plus one reasonably complete specimen. 

Alan Pradel studied some 3-d braincases of iniops as part of his thesis. They are very strange. 

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but the story about 'Flying sharks' is fake news. It has absolutely no scientific support. In fact there is evidence to the opposite.

First, the pectoral fins contain huge, bulky cartilage rods (very dense). Second, the anteriormost one of these rods is armed with huge, hooklike denticles (even more bulky). Third, iniops have a whiplike tail that could not have supported enough muscle mass to generate the forward thrust needed to escape from the water. By contrast, the pectorals in modern flying fishes are very lightweight and are made only of fin rays, not filled with heavy cartilage. The trunk region in flying fishes has powerful muscles that can generate high velocity in the water prior to take-off. 

So iniops could probably fly as well as me! And I can use an airplane!

 

[NickG]

On 3/10/2018 at 9:22 AM, Plantguy said:

Hey Rob, well this one certainly is another jaw dropper...not just a tooth but a shark specimen..seriously? Simply amazing! Keep us posted on getting it ID'd/described. Continued hunting success! 

 

Regards, Chris 

 

On 4/2/2018 at 3:58 PM, Carl said:

Whoops! I thought I had posted Dr. Maisey's comments:

 

Yes it really is a spectacular specimen. We have a few scraps, plus one reasonably complete specimen. 

Alan Pradel studied some 3-d braincases of iniops as part of his thesis. They are very strange. 

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but the story about 'Flying sharks' is fake news. It has absolutely no scientific support. In fact there is evidence to the opposite.

First, the pectoral fins contain huge, bulky cartilage rods (very dense). Second, the anteriormost one of these rods is armed with huge, hooklike denticles (even more bulky). Third, iniops have a whiplike tail that could not have supported enough muscle mass to generate the forward thrust needed to escape from the water. By contrast, the pectorals in modern flying fishes are very lightweight and are made only of fin rays, not filled with heavy cartilage. The trunk region in flying fishes has powerful muscles that can generate high velocity in the water prior to take-off. 

So iniops could probably fly as well as me! And I can use an airplane!

 

 

I agree as well as all -- this is an absolutely phenomenal specimen. Whatever happened to it?

 

Nick

[Biotalker]

Nice, I wonder if you could interest the appropriate researcher to see if this fossil could be X-rayed/CT scanned or otherwise analyzed to reveal more rhyme and reason in the cranial region. There is a lot of wonderful detail in this fossil!