Squalicorax
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Squalicorax Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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| Two Squalicorax and a Cretoxyrhina circling around a dead Claosaurus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Order: | Lamniformes |
| Family: |
†Anacoracidae Cappetta,1987 |
| Genus: | †Squalicorax |
| Species | |
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See text. |
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See text.
Squalicorax is a genus of extinct lamniform shark known to have lived during the Cretaceous period.
The name Squalicorax is derived from the Latin squalus for shark and the Greek κόραξ, "korax" for raven.
These sharks are of medium size, up to 5 meters (usually around 2 meters) in length. The body 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.
The following are the best studied American species for which relatively complete skeletons are described:
The world's largest and most complete semi-articulated fossil of Squalicorax was found in 2014 in stores of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Manitoba, in Canada, where it is now displayed. It measures more than 3 metres in length.
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