Archaeolamna

Archaeolamna is an extinct genus of mackerel sharks that lived during the Cretaceous. It contains three valid species which have been found in Europe, North America, and Australia. While it is mostly known from isolated teeth, an associated set of teeth, jaws, cranial fragments, and vertebrae of A. kopingensis is known from the Pierre Shale of Kansas. Teeth of A. k. judithensis were found with a plesiosaur skeleton with bite marks from the Judith River Formation of Montana. It was a medium-sized shark with an estimated total body length of 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft).

Archaeolamna

Mason Hintermeister · 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
ArchaeolamnidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 62 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 20 of 126 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 105 of 126 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 126 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 126 occurrencesEocene115–112 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 2 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 4 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 5 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 6 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 9 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 11 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 10 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 5 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 12 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 12 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 12 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 12 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 7 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 5 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110.1 Mya48.07 Mya115 Mya36 Mya

126 occurrences of Archaeolamna 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

126 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

36 formations

Mesaverde — 44.08°N, 107.74°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.75°WMesaverde — 44.17°N, 107.81°WBurim — 49.71°N, 31.54°ENavesink — 40.35°N, 74.17°WNavesink — 40.33°N, 74.26°WNavesink — 40.40°N, 74.13°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.40°N, 74.02°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WJudith River — 48.03°N, 109.01°WJudith River — 47.79°N, 108.94°WJudith River — 48.01°N, 108.91°WJudith River — 48.05°N, 106.32°WJudith River — 47.74°N, 108.96°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WMarshalltown — 40.00°N, 74.82°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WRybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERybushka — 51.23°N, 45.10°EKaskapau — 55.71°N, 117.60°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 38.72°N, 99.32°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WPeedee — 34.81°N, 77.98°WDonoho Creek — 34.06°N, 79.53°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WGearle Siltstone — 23.11°S, 114.18°ELa Cabaña — 43.34°N, 5.84°WWalnut Clay — 32.15°N, 97.58°WPierre Shale — 38.95°N, 101.15°WLyaminsk — 56.14°N, 37.38°ETres Hermanos — 34.31°N, 106.74°WPictured Cliffs Sandstone — 35.70°N, 107.00°W

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The named rock units Archaeolamna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 34 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Archaeolamna and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Archaeolamna and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

745 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 120 sites for Archaeolamna, 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

65 references

Each of the 126 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. 53 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 Archaeolamna

Credit
Mason Hintermeister
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Archaeolamna was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itArchaeolamnidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Siverson 1992