The first skeletons of Ptychotrygon

[Halichoeres]

Ptychotrygon is an extinct genus of batoid fishes (rays, sawfishes, and relatives) from the Cretaceous, whose teeth have been found all over the world. From the Cretaceous of Morocco come 5 (5!) almost complete skeletons, so we finally know what this thing looked like. The specimens have been given their own species, P. rostrispatula. A phylogenetic analysis finds Ptychotrygon to be a member of the Sclerorhynchoidei, consistent with what had been predicted from the teeth alone. (This is an extinct group of saw-snouted ray-like fishes, which were gradually replaced by the true sawfishes.)

Here's one of the specimens with an interpretive drawing:

To help orient, ros=rostrum, cver= caudal vertebrae, pvgr=pelvic girdle

Paper (paywall): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/spp2.1287

[ZoPteryx]

Very cool!  Seems to have had a really big rostrum compared to its total length.

[Halichoeres]

"What a large snoot you have!"

"The better to be booped, my dear."

[Faelrin]

Am I the only one that sees like a sword of some kind in there? Really interesting fossil though.

[Halichoeres]

Am I the only one that sees like a sword of some kind in there? Really interesting fossil though.

If it had survived to the present, somebody might have made a sword out of it, like someone did with this sawfish rostrum:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-16/police-arrest-man-armed-with-sawfish/4315462

[Faelrin]

Am I the only one that sees like a sword of some kind in there? Really interesting fossil though.

If it had survived to the present, somebody might have made a sword out of it, like someone did with this sawfish rostrum:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-16/police-arrest-man-armed-with-sawfish/4315462

That's really fascinating someone had managed to make something like that. Shame the guy with it had less then stellar behavior though.