Beautiful specimen. Unbroken.
†Enchodus sp, Agassiz 1843 (ray-finned fish)
Osteichthyes - Salmoniformes - Enchodontidae
Synonym: Tetheodus Cope 1874
Full reference: L. Agassiz. 1843. Recherches Sur Les Poissons Fossiles. Tome I (livr. 18). Imprimerie de Petitpierre, Neuchatel xxxii-188
Parent taxon: Enchodontidae according to C. Fielitz and K. A. González-Rodríguez 2010
See also Applegate 1970, Arambourg and Joleaud 1943, Case and Schwimmer 1988, Forey et al. 2003, Holloway et al. 2017, Sepkoski 2002, Shimada et al. 2006, Thurmond and Jones 1981, Woodward 1901 and Woodward 1902
Sister taxa: Cimolichthys, Eurypholis, Halec, Leptecodon, Palaeolycus, Pantophilus, Parenchodus, Prionolepis
Subtaxa: Enchodus anceps, Enchodus annectens, Enchodus brevis, Enchodus dirus, Enchodus faujasi, Enchodus ferox, Enchodus gladiolus, Enchodus gracilis, Enchodus lamberti, Enchodus lemonnieri, Enchodus lewesiensis, Enchodus longidens, Enchodus longipectoralis, Enchodus major, Enchodus marchesettii, Enchodus mecoanalis, Enchodus oliveirai, Enchodus oxytomus, Enchodus petrosus, Enchodus pulchellus, Enchodus saevus, Enchodus semistriatus, Enchodus shumardi, Enchodus subaequilateralis, Enchodus tetraecus, Enchodus tineidae, Enchodus venator, Enchodus zipapanensis, Tetheodus pephredo
Type: Esox lewesiensis
Ecology: nektonic carnivore
Environments: marine (24 collections), carbonate (6), marginal marine (5), shallow subtidal (5), estuary/bay (4), coastal (3), terrestrial (3), deltaic (2), lagoonal/restricted shallow subtidal (2), offshore (2), fluvial-lacustrine (2), transition zone/lower shoreface (2), (1), deep subtidal (1), "floodplain" (1), lagoonal (1), channel lag (1), lacustrine (1), offshore (1), deep subtidal shelf (1), open shallow subtidal (1), paralic (1)
Age range: 112.6 to 37.2 Ma
Distribution:
• Eocene of Spain (1 collection)
• Paleocene to Eocene of India (1), Saudi Arabia (1)
• Paleocene of Bolivia (1), United States (1: New Jersey)
• Cretaceous to Paleogene of United States (2: Arkansas, New Jersey)
• Cretaceous of Bolivia (1), Brazil (3), Canada (6: Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan), the Congo-Brazzaville (1), Egypt (2), Equatorial Guinea (1), France (2), India (3), Israel (2), Italy (2), Japan (1), Jordan (3), Lebanon (1), Mexico (3), Niger (6), Palestinian Territory (1), Spain (1), Syria (8), Morocco, United States (48: Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah)
Enchodus sp: Fossilworks (Paleobiology Database)
The Ouled Abdoun Basin (or Khouribga Basin), located in the central sector of Morocco, is an enormous sedimentarian basin represented mostly by a vast filling of phosphate sediments. Apart from having a relevant raw material to be extracted, it has a series of very important paleontological sites in which amazing assemblages from big and small marine vertebrates are present. The basin has a so great continuity in its stratigraphic record that both the Upper Cretaceous as well as the two first epochs of the Paleogene (Paleocene and Eocene) can be studied.
The main assemblage of vertebrate fossils of the Paleogene sector present there is composed by sharks, fish, turtles, marine snakes, rays, crocodiles, other types of reptiles and even marine birds. In the Cretaceous part we can add Mosasaurs, Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs.
Next you can visit a link with very interesting information about this sedimentarian basin rich in fossil vertebrates: Ouled Abdoun Basin
