The fossil in question is a 26 - centimeter -
long partial skull of a fierce predator, as evidenced by three parallel rows of sharp teeth up to 2 centimeters long along the jaw margins, as well as several smaller teeth inside the mouth.
The paleontologists who analyzed two
partial skulls found in South Carolina — one recently discovered by a diver and the other unearthed from the same formation more than 30 years ago — put the
long - extinct creature in a new genus dubbed Inermorostrum, which roughly translated from Latin means «defenseless snout.»
Both of these areas produced an abundance of well - preserved Late Cretaceous and Eocene - aged fossils, including those of birds, plesiosaurs (
long - necked marine reptiles; numerous isolated bones and at least one
partial skeleton), bony fishes (including several
skulls and
partial skeletons), sharks, whales, unidentified vertebrates, and a variety of beautifully - preserved invertebrates (e.g., ammonites, nautiloids, gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans).