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Two shark-bitten whale skeletons from coastal plain deposits of South Carolina

Publication Name
(2009) Southeastern Naturalist, 8(1):71-82
Author(s)
Cicimurri, D.J., and J.L. Knight

Two partial skeletons of baleen whales have been recovered from Coastal Plain deposits of South Carolina. One specimen, from the lower Pliocene Goose Creek Limestone, consists of a partial skull (including mandibles) and some incom- plete ribs; the other was collected from Pleistocene–Holocene mud and includes numerous post-cranial elements in addition to fragmentary premaxillae and maxil- lae. These whale skeletons preserve compelling fossil/sub-fossil evidence, in the form of bite marks and shed/embedded teeth, that the elasmobranchs Galeocerdo cuvier, Carcharhinus falciformis, C. longimanus, C. obscurus, and C. plumbeus fed on cetacean carcasses.

 

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