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Xiphactinus audax (1) - vertebra

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Description

fossil vertebra of giant fish, mm 19 x 17 x 8.
Xiphactinus audax (from latin and greek "a sword-ray") was a huge predator fish of 6 meters and lived in the sea that covered most of the U.S. and Canada in the Late Cretaceous. Probably looked like an enormous herring with sharped  teeth which gave to his face a menacing appearance. This "mastiff of seas", however, was in turn prey for reptiles Mosasaurus and Cretoxyrhina, an affinity for today shark Carcharodon carcharias.
Xiphactinus had a very special way to feed itself: holding the prey, presumably dead, it contracted the jaws giving a push that led up to the stomach. This method, however, entailed risks: as shown with an exceptional fossil discovery, the fish bone could swallow large prey even half of his body, with the risk that these damage the tissues of the throat and then kill the animal.
The species, even fierce and dangerous, became extinct during the Cretaceous, when the sea is the North American closed and we slowly dried up.

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