Mosasaur tooth marks on the ammonite Placenticeras from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Mosasaur tooth marks were found in the body chamber and phragmocone of the Campanian ammonite Placenticeras meeki Boehm from the Bearpaw Formation of the St. Mary River area near Lethbridge. They imply that the shell wall of the ammonite buckled around point loads and did not break into fragments like the shell of Nautilus. The complex septal sutures provided a strong but marginally flexible support for the shell wall. The shells were probably attacked near the surface, perhaps during initial postmortem drift of corpses.