Named By: | unavailable |
Time Period: | Late Miocene to Pleistocene |
Location: | Pacific coastlines of North America, particularly California and Oregon |
Size: | Up to 2.7 meters long |
Diet: | Planktonic filter feeder |
Fossil(s): | Many specimens |
Classification: | | Chordata | Teleostomi | Actinopterygii | Salmoniformes | Salmonidae | |
Also known as: | | Smilodonichthys rastrosus | |
Oncorhynchus rastrosus (synonym Smilodonichthys rastrosus) also known as the sabertooth salmon, is an extinct species of salmon that lived along the Pacific coast of North America, first appearing in the late Miocene of California, then dying out some time during the Pleistocene. Adults grew to be 2.7 m (9 ft) in length and are believed to have been anadromous like their living relatives. Besides being the largest member of the Pacific salmon genus Oncorhynchus, members of this species had a pair of small "fangs" protruding from the tip of the snout, thus explaining the common name and synonym. Beyond their fangs, adults of O. rastrosus had larger gill rakers compared to their smaller, modern relatives, leading scientists to suggest that the adults ate plankton.