Meristodonoides

The type species is M. rajkovichi, which was originally a species in the genus Hybodus. The species, along with other Hybodus species such as H. butleri and H. montanensis, was reassigned to Meristodonoides by Charlie J. Underwood and Stephen L. Cumbaa in 2010. Species • M. butleri (Thurmond, 1971) - Aptian/Albian of Texas • M. novojerseyensis (Case & Cappetta, 2004) - Campanian of North Carolina, Maastrichtian of New Jersey and the Campanian of British Columbia, Canada, European Russia and France. == Ecology ==

The morphology of the teeth suggests an adaptation to tearing prey, with a specialization for restraining fast-swimming prey such as small fish and squid, as well as weakly armored prey. Fossils from the Western Interior Seaway suggest that it preferred nearshore marine environments, being absent from deeper-water areas, with it likely also being able to tolerate brackish and freshwater conditions. In the Gulf Coastal Plain, Meristodonoides teeth are largely found in estuarine deposits. The restriction of Meristodonoides to nearshore habitats, combined with its late occurrence, fits the overall decline in niches occupied by hybodonts throughout the Cretaceous, likely due to them being outcompeted by lamniform sharks in open marine habitats. However, some Meristonoides teeth have also been recovered from deep-water deposits representing open marine environments, such as the Northumberland Formation in Canada. ==References==