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The dentition of Goodrichthys , a Carboniferous ctenacanthiform shark from Scotland
Author(s) -
Ginter Michal
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta zoologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1463-6395
pISSN - 0001-7272
DOI - 10.1111/j.1463-6395.2008.00339.x
Subject(s) - dentition , holotype , biology , cusp (singularity) , carboniferous , anatomy , elasmobranchii , ridge , paleontology , mandible (arthropod mouthpart) , zoology , genus , structural basin , mathematics , geometry
Study of three sets of chondrichthyan teeth from the Mississippian (Viséan) of Glencartholm, Scotland, namely the dentition of the holotype of a ctenacanthiform shark Goodrichthys eskdalensis , the dentition of a recently found, yet undescribed shark (NMS 2000.14.2), and a group of isolated teeth probably found in a nodule, tentatively suggests that all of them represent the same species. The combined characters of these teeth show that the dentition of Goodrichthys was moderately heterodont, of a cladodont design, in which larger teeth may have had three, and smaller ones only two, lateral cusps on each side of a prominent, coarsely cristated median cusp. The base is similar to that of Cladodus and Famennian representatives of Ctenacanthus , with a prominent, undivided basolabial shelf and an almost straight orolingual ridge.