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Giant Cretaceous sawfish (Onchosaurus) from Texas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Thomas M. Lehman*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock 79409

Extract

Detached rostral teeth of fossil sawfishes of the family Sclerorhynchidae Cappetta (1974) are relatively common in Late Cretaceous marine strata of Texas. Most such teeth are referable to various species of Ischyrhiza and Onchopristis (Slaughter and Steiner, 1968). The extraordinarily large rostral teeth described herein are not referable to any sawfish presently known from North America. They belong to Onchosaurus pharao (Dames, 1887), which is known elsewhere from Egypt, Nigeria, Zaire, Angola, and Brazil (Arambourg, 1940; Tabaste, 1963; Cappetta, 1987). The specimens are the largest reported for any sawfish.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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