Anomotodon
Anomotodon is an extinct genus of shark related to the extant goblin shark. The distribution of Anomotodon fossils is worldwide, in formations indicating that members of the genus lived from the Early Cretaceous epoch through the Eocene epoch, and perhaps through the Oligocene as well. Described species include A. novus, A. plicatus, A. principalis, and A. multidenticula.

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- MitsukurinidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes
Time the record covers
At least 90 million years on record.
The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 15.98 Mya.
120 occurrences of Anomotodon on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
120 occurrences- Early Cretaceous9%
- Late Cretaceous45%
- Paleocene11%
- Eocene34%
- Mioceneunder 1%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
43 formations
- London Clay Formation6
- Newhaven Chalk Formation5
- Gerhartsreit Formation5
- Dongen Formation4
- Marnes de Donzacq Formation4
- Mishash Formation3
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The named rock units Anomotodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Anomotodon and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Anomotodon and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
1,213 taxa- Odontaspis winkleri27 sites
- Striatolamia macrota24 sites
- Squalicorax kaupi22 sites
- Heterodontus21 sites
- Pachygaleus lefevrei21 sites
- Squatina prima21 sites
- Isurolamna inflata20 sites
- Premontreia (Oxyscyllium) gilberti20 sites
- Archaeolamna kopingensis19 sites
- Myliobatis19 sites
- Physogaleus secundus19 sites
- Rhinobatos19 sites
- Carcharias hopei16 sites
- Hypotodus verticalis16 sites
- Pseudocorax laevis16 sites
- Burnhamia daviesi15 sites
- Carcharias adneti15 sites
- Jaekelotodus robustus15 sites
- Palaeohypotodus rutoti15 sites
- Squalus minor15 sites
- Squatina (Cretascyllium) hassei15 sites
- Abdounia minutissima14 sites
- Aetomylaeus dixoni14 sites
- Cretalamna appendiculata14 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 113 sites for Anomotodon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
52 references- Sharks (Elasmobranchii: Euselachii) from the Late Cretaceous of France and the UK18
- Shifts in composition of northern Tethyan elasmobranch assemblages during the last millennia of the Cretaceous5
- Ecological impact of the end-Cretaceous extinction on lamniform sharks5
- Biology, dental morphology and taxonomy of lamniform sharks from the Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin, Sweden5
- Taxonomy and biostratigraphy of the elasmobranchs and bony fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes) of the lower-to-middle Eocene (Ypresian to Bartonian) Claiborne Group in Alabama, USA, including an analysis of otoliths4
- Nouvelle faunes de sélaciens (Elasmobranchii, Neoselachii) de l'Eocène moyen des Landes (Sud-Ouest, France). Implication dans la connaissance des communautés de sélaciens d'eau profondes4
- The marine vertebrate faunas from the Late Cretaceous phosphates of Syria4
- Les Elasmobranches de l'Albien inferieur et moyen (Cretace inferieur) de la Marne et de la Haute-Marne (France)4
- Elasmobranch teeth (Vertebrata, Pisces) from the Dongen Formation (Eocene) in The Netherlands4
- Les élasmobranches du Thanétien (Paléocène) du Nord de la France, des carrières de Templeuve et de Leforest3
- Contribution à l'étude des élasmobranches du Thanétien (Paléocène) du Bassin de Paris. 1. Découverte d'une faune d'elasmobranches dans la partie supérieure des Sables de Bracheux (Thanétien, Paléocène du Bassin de Paris) des régions de Compiègne (Oise) et de Montdidier (Somme)3
- Fossils from the Bracklesham Group exposed in the M27 Motorway excavations, Southampton, Hampshire3
Each of the 120 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 40 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Anomotodon
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ghedoghedo
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Anomotodon was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Anomotodon”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itMitsukurinidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Arambourg 1952