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Enchodus is an extinct genus of bony fish. It flourished during the Upper Cretaceous and was small to medium in size. One of the genus' most notable attributes are the large "fangs" at the front of the upper and lower jaws and on the palatine bones, leading to its misleading nickname among fossil hunters and paleoichthyologists, "the saber-toothed herring". These fangs, along with a long sleek body and large eyes, suggest Enchodus was a predatory species. The largest-known species of Enchodus is E.petrosus (Cope, 1874), remains of which are common from the Niobrara Chalk, the Mooreville Chalk, the Pierre Shale, and other geological formations deposited with the Western Interior Seaway and the Mississippi Embayment. Large indidivuals of this species had fangs measuring 6+ cm in length, though the total body length was only about 1.5 meters, giving its skull an appearance somewhat reminiscent of modern deep-sea fishes, such as anglerfish and viperfish. Despite being a formidable predator, remains of Enchodus are commonly found among the stomach contents of larger predators, including sharks, other bony fish, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs.
In North America, Enchodus remains have been recovered from most states with fossiliferous Late Cretaceous rocks, including Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Wyoming, Texas, California, and New Jersey. The taxon is also known from coeval strata in Africa, Europe, and southwest Asia. Enchodus survived the K-T extinction and persisted at least into the Eocene.
[edit] References
- Cope, E. D., 1874. Review of the Vertebrata of the Cretaceous period found west of the Mississippi River. U. S. Geolological Survey of the Territories, Bulletin 1(2):3-48.
- Russell, D. A. 1988. A check list of North American Marine Cretaceous vertebrates including fresh water fishes. Occasional Paper of the Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology #4.
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