FOSSIL EAGLE RAY TOOTH PLATE - Approx 5 million years old - Chile

FOSSIL EAGLE RAY TOOTH PLATE

Myliobatis

Approx 5 million years old

Bahia Inglesa Formation,

Copriapo, Northern Chile

A beautifully preserved tooth plate of Myliobatis. It's a gorgeous colour and preservation and is presented in a lidded gift box.

Myliobatis is a genus of eagle ray that lives in warm, shallow waters and first evolved in the Cretaceous period. The teeth are arranged in the upper and lower jaws in flat tooth plates called ‘pavements’, which are used to crush the shells of molluscs and crustaceans.

The Bahia Inglesa Formation is a phosphate mining area in the Atacama Desert near Copiapo in northern Chile. The formation dates from the Lower Pliocene to Upper Miocene.

Click on a picture for a larger image