8.8" Cretaceous Swordfish (Protosphyraena) Jaw Section - Kansas

Cretaceous Swordfish (Protosphyraena) Jaw Section - Kansas #197535

This is a 8.8" wide fossilized jaw section from a large Cretaceous swordfish (Protosphyraena sp.). There is one very large tooth in this fossil that is gorgeously preserved. Three additional teeth are situated at the distal end of the jaw and a large group of ridiculously tiny teeth are packed in toward the mesial end. This specimen shows the weird angles at which these teeth were rooted in the jaw. It gives more context to the snaggle-tooth appearance in artistic depictions of these fish. It was collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk in Gove County, Kansas.

This specimen comes with an acrylic display stand.

There is very minimal restoration on the jaw; only one noticeable repaired crack and a couple small areas of gap fill restoration.

Protosphyraena is a fossil genus of swordfish-like marine fish that had a worldwide distribution during the Upper Cretaceous Period. It was a large fish, averaging 2–3 meters in length. It shared the Cretaceous oceans with aquatic reptiles such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, as well as with many other species of extinct predatory fish. Though fossil remains of this taxon have been found in both Europe and Asia, it is perhaps best known from the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation of Kansas.

Ichthyodectes anaides, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil-rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. It outcrops in parts of northwest Kansas--its most famous localities for fossils--and in southeastern Nebraska. Large, well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and turtles.