Carcharias crassidens ( Agassiz, 1838 )

Szabó, Márton, 2019, Middle Miocene (Badenian) chondrichthyan and osteichthyan remains from St. Margarethen (eastern Austria) in the vertebrate palaeontological collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica 36, pp. 53-90 : 59

cf. Carcharias crassidens ( Agassiz, 1838)

(Figs 13–15)

Referred material – 1 tooth ( V.69.1092).

Description – The single here referred tooth is nearly as wide mesiodistally as high apicobasally. The main cusp is upright, triangular, and narrow in labial and lingual views (Fig. 13), with a flattened labial and convex lingual face. Both faces and cutting edges are smooth, the cutting edges reach the crown base, and continue on the lateral cusplets. The main cusp has a weak lingual inclination in profile view (Fig. 14). The root is bilobate, the lobes are well separated, of which the better preserved one has a rounded extremity. The lobes meet in an obtuse angle. Both lobes bear one lateral cusplet, fused to the basal edges of the main cusp. The labial root face bears a characteristic, mesiodistally running ridge below the crown base (Fig. 15).

Remarks – Here I follow STONE & SHIMADA (2019), who resurrected family Carchariidae for the genus Carcharias to separate it from family Odontaspididae . Tooth V.69.1092 is reminiscent of a figured type specimen of Carcharias crassidens (= Lamna crassidens , see AGASSIZ 1838, pl. 35, fig. 11, 11’). Since the validity of this species is doubtful, and its general tooth morphology is similar to that of the genus Araloselachus , here I refer tooth V.69.1092 provisionally as cf. Carcharias crassidens , until a revision of C. crassidens is done, or further specimens from St. Margarethen are identified.