Taxonomic validity of Petalodus ohioensis (Chondrichthyes, Petalodontidae) based on a cast of the lost holotype

Abstract

Only a crude line drawing of the holotype tooth of the shark Petalodus ohioensis Safford, 1853 has ever been published, and the location of that specimen has long been unknown. The discovery of a cast of the holotype in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History demonstrates that P. alleghaniensis Leidy, 1856, is a junior subjective synonym of P. ohioensis, thus resolving a long-standing dispute.