These rostra are often worn off at an angle as if the fish was using it to hammer at a hard substrate such as shells. There are only two partial skulls of these fish known and few vertebra. The teeth are very small and comb-like in appearance. Most of the specimens are in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas, and in the private collection maintained by the authors. This is a drawing the type specimen in the American Museum of Natural History 7.
Teeth are small and blade shaped.
Pycnodontids - Small to medium sized fish with teeth that look like small round pegs. Near the middle of the chalk, large Inoceramid shells have been found with schools of small Holocentrid fish preserved inside. Sometimes numbering in the hundreds, these fish were apparently trapped inside the shell when the clam died and the shell closed. Although several new species have been found inside clam shells, most have not yet been described. Coelacanths - Until recently, there were no Coelacanths known from the chalk.