Ichthyodectes ctenodon Cope, 1871

Remarks

• Collection:   University of Colorado Museum
• Formation:   Pierre Shale, Sharon Springs Member
• Location:     Niobrara County, WY
• Mike Everhart was kind enough to identify this fish for us.  Thanks!

General

Synonyms (older names and misidentifications)

• "Bulldog Fish"
• 1871 Ichthyodectes ctenodon Cope
• 1875 Ichthyodectes ctenodon Cope; Cope
• 1969 Ichthyodectes ctenodon Cope; Waldman

Stratigraphic Occurrence

• Montana Group, Pierre Shale, Sharon Springs Member of Wyoming
• Colorado Group, Niobrara Formation, top of Smoky Hill Chalk of Kansas
• Vermillion River Formation of Northwest Territories, Canada

Age

• Ichthyodectes ctenodon Cope is a very Early Campanian age fish (~81 mya).

Geographic Occurrence (not an all-inclusive list)

• Gove County, KS
• Niobrara County, WY
• Northwest Territories, Canada

Remarks

       For identification and descriptions, see:

• Cope, E. D.  1875.  The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of the West.  Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories (Hayden, F. V.), vol. 2, 207–208; plate XLVI, fig's 1–4.
• Waldman, M.  1969.  Ichthyodectes and Holcolepis from the Cretaceous of Lac des Bois, Northwest Territories, Canada.  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 6(5), 1316–1319; plate 1, fig's 1–4 (good photograph of a complete I. ctenodon skull).

        See also:

• Bardack, D.  1965.  Anatomy and Evolution of Chirocentrid Fishes.  Paleontological Contributions of the University of Kansas, Vertebrata 10, 1–88.