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Vol. VI Paleontology

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Volume VI: Paleontology--Part II: Cretaceous Fishes

Selachians and Pycnodonts

by Samuel W. Williston

Originally published in 1900 as Kansas Geological Survey Volume 6.

This online version has been created because the published version is currently out of print. This is, in general, the original text as published in 1900. The information has not been updated. In additon to the web version, a facsimile version scanned into Acobat PDF is also online.

black and white drawing of Hesperonis, Pterodactyl, Mossasaur, and Plesiosaurs

A larger version of this plate is available.

Selachians and Pycnodonts

The following notes and descriptions of selachian and pycnodont teeth are based upon the material that has accumulated in the University of Kansas Museum during the past ten or twelve years, supplemented by a collection kindly loaned for study by Mr. T. W. Stanton, of the National Museum. The material is by no means exhaustive, nor even sufficient to settle several doubtful points, but I trust that, incomplete as it may be, it will be of service in the determination of our numerous forms.

"The specific determination of the detached teeth of sharks and skates is little more than guesswork, and to decide upon their generic relationships with any approach to certainty is also often very difficult." [Woodward: Proc. Geol. Assoc., XIII, p. 190.] Nevertheless, because such detached teeth are so often found, and connected series so rarely, an attempt at their determination is desirable. Fortunately, in the present collection there are several forms represented by such complete specimens that the positive addition they afford to the knowledge of the species and genera is very welcome.

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Kansas Geological Survey, Volume V1, Cretaceous Fishes
Comments to webadmin@kgs.ku.edu
Web version July 2004. Original publication date 1900.
URL=http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/Vol6/index.html