Fossil Sawfish Barb

Description

This animal was a close relative of today’s sawfish, but Onchopristis was much older. This animal used to feed on fish that it hunted with the saw and then crushed the fish with its sharp teeth. It was one of the preferred prey of the gigantic Spinosaurus, with whom it is often believed that they had fierce encounters because it was the favorite food of this giant that also possessed defense weapons such as its saw to defend itself, although that did not help it much.

As with modern sawfish, onchopristis is a genus of extinct giant sclerorhynchoid (a sawfish-like chondrichthyan) from the Lower Cretaceous to Upper Cretaceous of North America, North Africa, Brazil, and New Zealand. It had an elongated snout lined laterally with barbed “teeth”, or denticles.