Brachaeluridae

Brachaelurus is the sole genus of sharks in the family Brachaeluridae in the order Orectolobiformes. Only two extant species of blind sharks occur, both of which are native to shallow coastal waters up to 110 m (360 ft) deep, off the eastern coast of Australia.

Brachaeluridae

David Breneman at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
OrectoloboideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Orectolobiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Orectolobiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Orectolobiformes

Time the record covers

At least 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 170.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 49 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 49 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 3 of 49 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 49 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 49 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 49 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 49 occurrencesEocene — about 27 of 49 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 49 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 49 occurrences205–199 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences199–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences193–186 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences186–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–174 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences174–168 Mya — about 2 occurrences168–162 Mya — about 1 occurrence162–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–131 Mya — about 1 occurrence131–125 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences125–118 Mya — about 2 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–81 Mya — about 2 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 3 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 3 occurrences57–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–44 Mya — about 10 occurrences44–38 Mya — about 9 occurrences38–32 Mya — about 6 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences170.9 Mya27.3 Mya205 Mya19 Mya

49 occurrences of Brachaeluridae 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

49 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

25 formations

Mesaverde — 44.08°N, 107.73°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.75°WMesaverde — 44.17°N, 107.81°WMarnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WGehannam — 29.33°N, 30.08°EGehannam — 29.30°N, 30.05°ENavesink — 40.33°N, 74.18°WHythe — 51.24°N, 0.05°WTuffeau de St-Omer — 50.53°N, 3.15°EEarnley — 51.08°N, 1.17°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.21°WNew Egypt — 40.09°N, 74.55°WWadi Umm Ghudran — 31.18°N, 35.70°ERishtan — 41.65°N, 64.69°EWadi Esh-Shallala — 31.57°N, 37.12°EMidawara — 29.08°N, 30.12°EKuma — 45.10°N, 34.63°ECouche II — 32.81°N, 6.83°WRed Bluff Clay — 31.37°N, 87.48°WCatahoula — 31.66°N, 88.66°WMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WDongen — 53.16°N, 6.22°EMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WTupelo Bay — 33.24°N, 80.44°WKressenberg — 47.93°N, 12.97°ESuzak — 41.65°N, 64.66°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Brachaeluridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brachaeluridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Brachaeluridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

644 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Brachaeluridae, 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

25 references

Each of the 49 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. 13 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 Brachaeluridae

Credit
David Breneman at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Brachaeluridae 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

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 itOrectoloboidei through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Applegate 1972