Skip to Main Content

Ptychodontidae

Ptychodontidae

Overview

Ptychodontidae Jaekel, 1898

Common Name: 'Shell crusher'

Extant/Extinct

Key morphological features: The Ptychodontidae include the largest shark of the Late Cretaceous WIS; Ptychodus mortoni. These sharks were durophagous (shell-crushing predators) having plates with rows of domed shell-crushing teeth. They preyed on plentiful inoceramid clams and bivalves of the Western Interior Seaway. 

        SIZE: Up to 10 meters (32ft)

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.


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