Saber-toothed salmon teeth more like tusks than fangs
Fossils suggest similarity to warthogs
By Susan Milius
PORTLAND, Ore. — Pacific Northwest nightmares are getting a revision. The saber-toothed salmon that once swam in the region may have been less saber-toothed cat and more tusky warthog.
Sharp front teeth gave the saber-toothed nickname to the extinct Oncorhynchus rastrosus fish. But rather than pointing downward like fangs, these teeth now appear to have stuck out to the sides a bit like warthog tusks, Kerin Claeson of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine reported January 4 at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting.