Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
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Online Publication Date: Dec 01, 2000

Dentition of Deltodus angularis (Holocephali, Cochliodontidae) Inferred from Associated Tooth Plates

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Page Range: 1090 – 1096
DOI: 10.1643/0045-8511(2000)000[1090:DODAHC]2.0.CO;2
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Abstract

The discovery of three pairs of cochliodont tooth plates that appear to have belonged to the same fish makes it possible to describe the complete dentition of a Carboniferous chondrichthyan hitherto described from isolated dental elements only. Reconstructed from these tooth plates found in a marine deposit, the dentition consists of one pair of elongated palatal plates that occludes with two pair of plates on the lower jaw. The palatal plates were originally described as Sandalodus; the large triangular mandibular tooth plates as Deltodus. These tooth plates, with a smaller pair from the front of the lower jaw earlier assigned to Orthopleurodus, are synonymized as Deltodus angularis.

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Copyright: The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.

Diagram of a holocephalian tooth plate, showing terms for margins and angles (from Stahl 1999)

Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.

Tooth plates of Deltodus angularis OGM N. 38670 in occlusal view. (A) Associated left and right posterior mandibular tooth plates. (B) Left and right anterior mandibular plates. (C) Left and right palatine tooth plates (photograph by D. G. Stahl). Scale bar = 1 cm

Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.

Dentition of Deltodus angularis. (A) Tooth plates shown in occlusion, dorsal view. Palatal tooth plate shaded. (B) Dentition in right labial view, showing conformity of occlusal surface of palatal plate (shaded) to that of the two lower plates. Anterior to the right

Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.

Reconstruction of the dentition of the cochliodont Deltodus mercurei, showing the upper and lower tooth plates in occlusion. Redrawn from Branson 1916

Accepted: May 05, 2000