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 incomplete ribs; the other was collected from Pleistocene-Holocene mud and includes numerous post-cranial elements in addition to fragmentary premaxillae and maxillae. 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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1 March 2009
Two Shark-bitten Whale Skeletons from Coastal Plain Deposits of South Carolina
David J. Cicimurri,
James L. Knight
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