Angle Shark
Squatina (Dumeril, 1906)
Squatina hassei (Leriche, 1929)
Squatina sp.
Age Upper Jurassic - Recent
Commonality: Cretaceous - Common/Tertiary
- Uncommon
Squatina
is an extant ray-like shark
with a fossil record dating back to the
Upper Jurassic. Over the past
150 million years there has been little evolutionary change in this
genus. As a result, the assignment of isolated teeth to a species is
difficult at best. Kent (1994) suggests "the easiest method for
separating individual species is by stratagraphic.
In New Jersey isolated
Squatina
teeth can be found in both the Cretaceous and
Tertiary locations.
Squatina hassei is from the Late
Cretaceous and is the only species reported from the New Jersey
Cretaceous making this identification relatively easy. I only have a few
poorly preserved specimens from the
Tertiary and will make no attempt to assign these to a specific
species.
Cretaceous
Squatina hassei
Top - labial / lingual views
Bottom - profile / bottom views
Wenonah Formation
Late Cretaceous
Monmouth County, NJ,
Angle Shark
Squatina hassei
Late Cretaceous
Monmouth County, NJ,
These teeth fall into my definition of
"micro", anything small enough to
slip through 1/4 inch mesh screening.
Squatina hassei
Left -Labial view of Squatina hassei Right - Profile view
Monmouth County, NJ
One of the few teeth I've found
large enough to get hung up in
the standard 1/4 inch screening
The vertebrae of the angle shark is unique looking.
There is calcified
cartilage on the
lateral surfaces of the
centrum.
Specimen donated to the New Jersey State Museum.
Tertiary
Squatina sp.
Top - labial / lingual views
Bottom - occlusal / basal views
Tertiary
Monmouth County, NJ,
References
Kent, B. W. 1994. Fossil Sharks of the Chesapeake Bay
Region. Egan Rees and Boyer, Inc., Columbia, MD, 146 pp.
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