Enchodus vs Xiphactinus

[Fermikante]

Hi everyone,

 

I have been going through my finds from Monmouth Country, NJ (mostly Big Brooks and Ramanessin Brook) and I am struggling to properly differentiate between Enchodus and Xiphactinus. I attempted to sort them into E. gladiolus, E. petrosus, X. vetus, and X. audax, which I believe are the main types that occur there. But especially for X. vetus vs X. audax I find it hard to find reliable information.

 

I attached a couple of images:

• Image 1: I believe those are all from E. gladiolus due to their characteristic sigmoidal shape.

 

• Image 2: I think those are all Enchodus dermopalatines. I'd guess mostly petrosus but quite unsure about this assignment.

 

• Images 3 and 4: Mostly (broken) E. petrosus fangs? Not sure if there's something else mixed in.

 

• Images 5 and 6:  Xiphactinus? I am fairly sure a)-c) are Xiphactinus because I can see the typical conical indent at the root. In fact, @Carl and @Al Dente had already identified c) as an X. vetus in an older post of mine. b) looks very similar so I'd wager it is an X. vetus as well. a) is much slimmer and more straight, so maybe that's an X. audax instead? For d)-h) I can't see the conical indent at the root and I am not sure whether that's because they are too broken or actually Enchodus fangs.

 

Happy to take pictures of other angles, I just wasn't sure which features to focus on...