Cretomanta, CASE, TOKARYK & BAIRD, 1990

Adnet, Sylvain, Cappetta, Henri, Guinot, Guillaume & Sciara, Giuseppe Notarbartolo Di, 2012, Evolutionary history of the devilrays (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes) from fossil and morphological inference, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 166 (1), pp. 132-159 : 140

GENUS † CRETOMANTA CASE, TOKARYK & BAIRD, 1990

Included species: † Cretomanta canadensis Case et al., 1990 .

Occurrences: The genus occurs from the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Canada and North America ( Cappetta & Case, 1999; Case et al., 1990; Cicimurri, 2001; Shimada et al., 2006; Underwood & Cumbaa, 2010) to the Maastrichtian of Morocco ( Noubhani & Cappetta, 1997).

Remarks: The monospecific genus † Cretomanta Case et al., 1990 is only known by isolated teeth with a ‘peg-like’ morphology. There is no individualized labial face on the crown; the cusp is medially compressed, the enameloid is smooth except on the rounded labial face that presents faint longitudinal scratches ( Underwood & Cumbaa, 2010); the root is anaulacorhize with numerous nutritive foramina as observable in recent Manta . Some teeth show a bifid cuspidate crown, as observed in the dentition of some living mobulids. Case et al. (1990) originally attributed this taxon to a microphageous batoid close to the Recent Manta , considering the global similarity between tooth shapes of both taxa. However, this tooth morphology is regarded as possibly convergent with Manta as observed in other enigmatic Cretaceous batoids such as Duwibatis ( Cappetta, 1991) , and has also led some authors to consider Cretomanta as a planktivorous lamniform ( Noubhani & Cappetta, 1997; Cappetta, 2006) or with uncertain familial affinities amongst batoids ( Underwood & Cumbaa, 2010).