Apristurus

Apristurus is a genus of catsharks, the family Pentanchidae, the deepwater catsharks. The species in this genus are commonly known as the ghost or demon catsharks.

Apristurus

Jon Moore · Public Domain · 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
GaleinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes

Time the record covers

At least 39 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 5 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 13 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences41.03 Mya1.8 Mya49 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Apristurus on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

13 occurrences

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

5 formations

Neuhofen — 48.50°N, 14.28°EMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WMarnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WMakino — 34.75°N, 136.27°E

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The named rock units Apristurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Apristurus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Apristurus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

110 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Apristurus, 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

5 references

Each of the 13 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. 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 content2

Picture of Apristurus

Credit
Jon Moore
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Apristurus indicus · USNM:FISH:USNM 83894

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

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 itGaleinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Garman 1913