Centrophorus
Centrophorus is a genus of squaliform sharks. These deep-water sharks, found in temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world, are characterized by grey or brown bodies, large green eyes, and spines on both dorsal fins. These spines give them their name, from Greek κεντρον, kentron meaning "thorn" and φέρειν, pherein meaning "to bear".

Uncredited · Public Domain · via Wikidata/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
- CentrophoridaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Squaliformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Squaliformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Squaliformes
Time the record covers
At least 64 million years on record.
The record covers at least 66 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 774 ka.
74 occurrences of Centrophorus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
74 occurrences- Late Cretaceous1%
- Paleocene8%
- Eocene22%
- Oligocene1%
- Miocene50%
- Pliocene7%
- Pleistocene11%
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
31 formations
- Waipara Greensand Formation4
- La Meseta Formation4
- Argille Azzurre Formation4
- Neuhofen Formation3
- Upper Marine Molasse Formation3
- Angostura Formation2
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The named rock units Centrophorus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Centrophorus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Centrophorus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
468 taxa- Isistius triangulus18 sites
- Squalus17 sites
- Dasyatis14 sites
- Myliobatis14 sites
- Carcharhinus priscus12 sites
- Dalatias licha12 sites
- Carcharodon hastalis11 sites
- Etmopterus11 sites
- Hemipristis serra11 sites
- Squatina11 sites
- Dasyatis rugosa10 sites
- Keasius parvus10 sites
- Pristiophorus10 sites
- Carcharhinus9 sites
- Carcharhinus acuarius9 sites
- Chaenogaleus affinis9 sites
- Deania calcea9 sites
- Mustelus9 sites
- Notorynchus primigenius9 sites
- Pristiophorus suevicus9 sites
- Rhizoprionodon ficheuri9 sites
- Squaliolus schaubi9 sites
- Aetobatus arcuatus8 sites
- Carcharias8 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 68 sites for Centrophorus, 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
39 references- A new bathyal shark fauna from the Pleistocene sediments of Fiumefreddo (Sicily, Italy)8
- Les Squalidae (Euselachii) miocènes des environs d'Avignon (Vaucluse)8
- Inventaire des Élasmobranches (requins, raies, chimères) des dépôts molassiques du Sud-Luberon (Miocène supérieur)6
- New records of fossil elasmobranch genera Megascyliorhinus, Centrophorus, and Dalatias (Order Selachii) in New Zealand6
- An early Cenozoic neoselachian shark fauna from the South Pacific4
- The shark and ray teeth of the Lower Miocene (Upper Marine Molasse) from Ballendorf, Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany3
- A new deep-sea elasmobranch fauna from the Central Paratethys (Neuhofener Beds, Mitterdorf, near Passau, Germany, Early Miocene, Middle Burdigalian)3
- Eocene squalomorph sharks (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii) from Antarctica2
- Fossil Chondrichthyes from the central eastern Pacific Ocean and their paleoceanographic significance2
- Bathyal sharks from the middle Pliocene of the Romagna Apennines (Italy)2
- 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 profondes2
- Sharks, rays and skates (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii) from the Upper Marine Molasse (middle Burdigalian, early Miocene) of the Simssee area (Bavaria, Germany), with comments on palaeogeographic and ecological patterns1
Each of the 74 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. 27 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 Centrophorus
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Centrophorus 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 itCentrophoridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Müller and Henle 1837