Kenshu Shimida

Tamaki Sato, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, Takanobu Tsuihiji

Academic paper

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

30

2

592-597

Futabasaurus suz ukii Sato, Hasegawa, and Manabe, 2006, is an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous in central Japan. The holotype and the only known specimen of this taxon is a partial skeleton (Fig. 1), which co-occurred with �several tens of shark teeth� (Sato et al., 2006:468). The shark teeth were previously identified as those of �Odontaspis sp.� (e.g., Obata et al., 1970), but we re-identified them as an extinct lamniform shark, Cretalamna ( = Cretolamna) appendiculata (Agassiz, 1835). This fossil represents the first direct evidence indicating the diet and feeding behavior of C. appendiculata. As described below, it is also one of the most remarkable cases of shark feeding in the fossil record. The purpose of this paper is to properly describe the shark teeth and to discuss their significance

English