This one pretty clearly keys to Kogotus, but it also looks fairly different from specimens I caught in the same creek about a month later in the year. With only one species of the genus known in Washington, I'm not sure about the answer to this ID.
Troutnut on Oct 17, 2006October 17th, 2006, 3:22 pm EDT
The presentation I saw tonight by artist Ray Troll introduced me to a really cool extinct salmonid: Smilodonichthys, the Saber-Toothed Salmon. It was an anadromous fish found in the Pacific from LA north at least to Canada, and it grew up to 10 feet long and 500 pounds, averaging more than half that. It had two enormous teeth giving it the saber-toothed look, but otherwise most resembled a gigantic sockeye salmon.
We missed this amazing fishing opportunity by a mere 4-5 million years. Can you imagine the crowds that would line the Kenai for a shot at one of those?
Ray's paintings of the extinct species are awesome, as are the photos of the fossils. Unfortunately I can't find any of them online. If anybody can, be sure to post the link!
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Be glad to help you out. A collection of fossils were found in the Skykomish River not far from my cottage. A fisherman found it from the local tribe. 100 in total.
There are other sources.
One now extinct salmonid from this era is the saber-toothed salmon. Weighing hundreds of pounds, it had a pair of enormous curved teeth, but fed chiefly on ...
www.goldseal.ca/wildsalmon/salmon_history.asp?article=16 - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
http://www.geoprime.com/spec/Images/Shark%20tooth%20image.htm
This should take you to the jawbones they found as well. Huge fish.