Gar-Bitten Coprolite From South Carolina, USA

Abstract

Coprolites can preserve a wide range of biogenic components. Of all the coprolites known from the fossil record, hitherto only two are known to preserve vertebrate tooth impressions (i.e., those of chondrichthyans). Here, a coprolite, from a thick lag deposit that includes a mixture of late Cretaceous, early Paleocene, and Plio-Pleistocene taxa at Clapp Creek in Kingstree, Williamsburg County, South Carolina, USA, preserves bite marks most consistent with having been made by a gar, Lepisosteus sp. (Lepisosteidae, Actinopterygii). This is the first-known coprolite to preserve actinopterygian tooth/bite marks. Aborted coprophagy seems unlikely; an accidental or serendipitous strike more likely describes the origin of the score marks over the surface of the coprolite. This coprolite also preserves small paired striations interpreted as evidence of coprophagy by an unknown organism.