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Pristidae

Pristidae

Overview

Pristidae Bonaparte, 1838

Common Name: 'Sawfish'

Extant/Extinct

Key morphological features: Sawfish get their name from having a narrow, long, flattened rostrum (nose) lined with teeth. They are known to wield this nose to impale fish or pin them to the ocean bottom. These fossils are rare for the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway.

        SIZE: Up to 7 meters (23ft)

Paleoecology:

        MOBILITY: Mobile (swim)

        FEEDING MODE: Predator

        HABITAT: epifaunal

Sources:

Everhart, M. J., 2005. Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. 322 pp.

Wueringer BE, Squire L, Jr., Kajiura SM, Hart NS, and Collin SP. 2012. The function of the sawfish's saw. Current Biology 22:R150-R151.

 


Genera of Pristidae present in the Cretaceous of the Western Interior Seaway