Raja sp.

Cicimurri, David J. & Knight, James L., 2009, Late Oligocene sharks and rays from the Chandler Bridge Formation, Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54 (4), pp. 627-647 : 637

Raja sp.

Fig. 7A, B .

Referred specimens.—BCGM 9087–9089, SC 2009.18.16.

Comments.—Male teeth are strongly cuspidate ( Fig. 7A ) but female teeth bear an indistinct cusp ( Fig. 7B ). These teeth are twice the size as those of Raja mccollumi sp. nov. but are much less common. Although the female morphotype in our sample is similar in size and overall morphology to the type Raja casieri Steurbaut and Herman, 1978 (a female tooth), the transverse cutting edge is less developed and the lingual uvula is not as pronounced ( Hovestadt and Hovestadt−Euler 1995: pl. 2; Reinecke et al. 2005: pl. 56). The teeth of male R. casieri are comparable in size and morphology to the teeth in our sample, but our specimens lack cutting edges ( Reinecke et al. 2005: pl. 55; Haye et al. 2008: pl. 9: 1, 2). Although the Chandler Bridge teeth are of similar size to R. olisiponensis (Jonet, 1968) , the male teeth lack cutting edges and female teeth do not have the pyramidal appearance that has been described in the latter taxon (see Cappetta 1970; Antunes and Balbino 2007). The Chandler Bridge teeth differ from Pliocene Raja sp. of Purdy et al. (2001: fig. 9) in that the margin of the crown is thinner and does not curve apically, and the cusp lacks a labio−lingually oriented cutting edge.

Figures

Fig. 7. Skates from Summerville, upper Chattian. A, B, Raja sp. A. BCGM 9088, male anterior tooth, occlusal (A1), lateral (A2), and lingual (A3) view. B. BCGM 9089, female lateral tooth, labial (B1) and lateral (B2) view. C, D, Raja mccollumi sp. nov. C. BCGM 9093 (holotype), male anterior tooth, occlusal (C1), lateral (C2), labial (C3), and lingual (C4) view. D. BCGM 9199 (paratype), male lateral tooth, basal (D1), lateral (D2), lingual (D3) view. E. BCGM 9095, Raja sp. denticle, lateral−oblique view. F–H, R. mccollumi sp. nov. F. BCGM 9200 (paratype), female anterior tooth, occlusal (F1), labial (F2), and lingual (F3) view. G. BCGM 9201 (paratype), female lateral tooth, labial (G1) and lingual (G2) view. H. BCGM 9202 (paratype), female posterior tooth, occlusal (H1), labial (H2), lingual (H3) view.