Xiphactinus
| Xiphactinus | |
|---|---|
| Mounted skeleton of X. audax at the American Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | †Ichthyodectiformes |
| Family: | †Ichthyodectidae |
| Subfamily: | †Ichthyodectinae |
| Genus: | †Xiphactinus Leidy, 1870 |
| Type species | |
| †Xiphactinus audax Leidy, 1870 | |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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List of synonyms
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Xiphactinus (from Latin and Greek for "sword-ray") is an extinct genus of large predatory marine ray-finned fish that lived during the late Albian to the late Maastrichtian. The genus grew up to 5–6 metres (16–20 ft) in length, and superficially resembled a gargantuan, fanged tarpon. It is a member of the extinct order Ichthyodectiformes, which represent close relatives of modern teleosts.
The species Portheus molossus described by Cope is a junior synonym of X. audax. Skeletal remains of Xiphactinus have come from the Carlile Shale and Greenhorn Limestone of Kansas (where the first Xiphactinus fossil was discovered during the 1850s in the Niobrara Chalk), and Cretaceous formations all over the East Coast (most notably Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and New Jersey) in the United States, as well as Europe, Australia, the Kanguk and Ashville Formations of Canada, La Luna Formation of Venezuela and the Salamanca Formation in Argentina.