The dentition of Goodrichthys, a Carboniferous ctenacanthiform shark from Scotland

Abstract

AbstractStudy of three sets of chondrichthyan teeth from the Mississippian (Viséan) of Glencartholm, Scotland, namely the dentition of the holotype of a ctenacanthiform shark Goodrichthys eskdalensis, the dentition of a recently found, yet undescribed shark (NMS 2000.14.2), and a group of isolated teeth probably found in a nodule, tentatively suggests that all of them represent the same species. The combined characters of these teeth show that the dentition of Goodrichthys was moderately heterodont, of a cladodont design, in which larger teeth may have had three, and smaller ones only two, lateral cusps on each side of a prominent, coarsely cristated median cusp. The base is similar to that of Cladodus and Famennian representatives of Ctenacanthus, with a prominent, undivided basolabial shelf and an almost straight orolingual ridge.