Sarcoprion

Sarcoprion (from the Ancient Greek, "flesh saw") is an extinct genus of eugeneodont holocephalan from the Permian of Greenland. It possessed arching rows of connected teeth, termed tooth whorls, along the midline of its upper and lower jaws, as well as flattened, pavement-like teeth elsewhere in the mouth. It is distinguished from other members of its family by the presence of sharp, symphyseal teeth on both the upper and lower jaws. The tooth whorl on the lower jaw bore sharp, compact tooth crowns, while a row of backward facing, triangular teeth was present on the roof of the mouth. The preserved material does not show evidence of a distinct upper jaw, implying it may have been fused to the cranium, reduced, or lost entirely. The type and only species in the genus is S. edax.

== Research history and naming == The first four Sarcoprion edax fossils were first discovered during the 1930s by paleontologist Eigil Nielsen, and originated inside concretions from the Foldvik Creek Formation of East Greenland. These specimens were described by Nielsen in 1952, and the most complete of them was designated as the holotype (name-bearing specimen on which the species is based). Part of the holotype specimen was collected in 1932, and other fragments were collected later in 1937. Nielsen suspected that a larger portion of this specimen was originally preserved, but that it had most likely become broken apart and lost due to erosion. A block of unprepared rock matrix containing the remainder of this specimen's skull has since been identified.