This fossil of Edestus shows what the pinking-shear-like saw looked like. No one really knows where in the jaw the pinking shears went---if one went out of the lower jaw, if one went out of the upper jaw, or if there was one on the lower jaw and one on the upper jaw.The jaw isn't the only mysterious part of Edestus, because no one knows what Edestus's body looked like---if it was long, tapering and eel-like, like the body of a Xenacanth shark, or if it was more shark-like, like the body of a modern day shark.
For a prehistoric shark that managed to persist for almost 150 million years--from the early Devonian to the middle Permian period--not a whole lot is known about Orthacanthus other than its unique anatomy. Also a strange, vertically oriented spine that jutted out from the back of its head
.The spike that rises up from the back of the head of Orthacanthus seems to have been a defensive feature to stop other predators from clamping their jaws onto its head. These exact predators may still be unknown to science but they may have been other fish.
This fossil of Edestus shows what the pinking-shear-like saw looked like. No one really knows where in the jaw the pinking shears went---if one went out of the lower jaw, if one went out of the upper jaw, or if there was one on the lower jaw and one on the upper jaw.The jaw isn't the only mysterious part of Edestus, because no one knows what Edestus's body looked like---if it was long, tapering and eel-like, like the body of a Xenacanth shark, or if it was more shark-like, like the body of a modern day shark.
pinking-cut a scalloped or zigzag edge on
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/e/edestus.html
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/e/edestus.html
12/30/14
For a prehistoric shark that managed to persist for almost 150 million years--from the early Devonian to the middle Permian period--not a whole lot is known about Orthacanthus other than its unique anatomy. Also a strange, vertically oriented spine that jutted out from the back of its head
.The spike that rises up from the back of the head of Orthacanthus seems to have been a defensive feature to stop other predators from clamping their jaws onto its head. These exact predators may still be unknown to science but they may have been other fish.
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/o/orthacanthus.html