Araloselachus vorax ( Le Hon, 1871 )

Araloselachus vorax ( Le Hon, 1871)

( Figs 4–12 View Figs 4–12 )

Referred material –12 teeth (V.61.915, V.61.917, V.61.921, V.62.396,V.63.412, V.69.1059, V.69.1100).

Description – The main cusp of anterior files is slender and pointed, showing a slight lingual curvature in profile view ( Figs 4–9 View Figs 4–12 ). Upper lateral tooth ( V.62.396) has distally inclined main cusp, straight in profile view ( Figs 10–12 View Figs 4–12 ). While the examined anterior teeth are ×1.5–2 higher apicobasally than wide mesiodistally, the upper lateral tooth is nearly as wide as high. Th e cutting edge of all teeth is smooth and sharp, it runs from the tip to the crown-base. The labial crown face is weakly convex to flat, while the labial is strongly convex. The enameloid surface of the labial crown face is completely smooth. The root is bilobate, the lobes meet in a pronounced lingual protuberance, bearing a large nutrient groove. The lobes bear usually two pairs of sharp cusplets (some anterior files bear only one pair), of which the first pair is strongly hooked towards the main cusp in anterior teeth.

Remarks – This species was originally described as Lamna (Odontaspis) vorax by LE HON (1871). Later on, it was widely included in Carcharias (e.g. DE SCHUTTER 2011; see also synonym lists of REINECKE et al. 2011 and BOR et al. 2012), but BOR et al. (2012) re-assigned the species into the genus Araloselachus .

From the Miocene of Europe, large-sized odontaspidid teeth with smooth labial crown face are widely referred to as Araloselachus cuspidatus and A. vorax (e.g. REINECKE et al. 2011, 2014). The two species seem to be closely related, but the latter species has smaller, less-massive teeth, also less-developed root lobes, with multiple pairs of sharp and hooked lateral cusplets, of which the secondary ones are well developed, especially in anterior files (see DE SCHUTTER 2011; REINECKE et al. 2011; BOR et al. 2012: 23). A. vorax is distributed mainly in the North Sea Basin during the Burdigalian-Tortonian, but it seems to occur occasionally in the Burdigalian-Langhian deposits of the Central Paratethys exposed in Austria and southern Germany ( DE SCHUTTER 2011: 179).

Teeth of C. acutissima and C. taurus , two hardly distinguishable species widespread in the Badenian of the Central Paratethys, are easily separable from A. vorax , as they have slender teeth with apicobasally striated lingual crown face ( WARD & BONAVIA 2001; REINECKE et al. 2011, 2014; SZABÓ & KOCSIS 2016, table 2).