Centrophorus granulosus

The gulper shark is a long and slender dogfish usually about three feet in length generally found in deep, murky waters all around the world. It is a light grayish brown, paler ventrally, with a long snout and large greenish eyes. This deep water shark has two dorsal fins with long, grooved spines and the second dorsal fin smaller than the first. Its upper teeth are blade-like and lower have finely serrated edges. This tertiary consumer feeds on mainly fish such as bony fish, but also cephalopods such as squid and other invertebrates like crustaceans. The gulper shark is currently an endangered species mainly because of exploitation by humans and their abnormally long gestation period and low fecundity, preventing their population from recovering. Because of the depth of their habitat, they are considered little to no threat to humans.

Centrophorus granulosus

Chris_huh · 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
Also called
gulper sharkPBDB
Sits inside
CentrophorusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Squaliformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Squaliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Squaliformes

Time the record covers

At least 46 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 774 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 33 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 33 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 33 occurrencesMiocene — about 20 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 33 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences48.07 Mya1.8 Mya57 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Centrophorus granulosus 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

33 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

9 formations

Argille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°EArgille Azzurre — 44.26°N, 11.66°EArgille Azzurre — 44.21°N, 11.82°EMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WAchen — 47.88°N, 12.27°EChagres — 9.27°N, 80.06°WLillebælt Clay — 55.60°N, 9.80°EKressenberg — 47.93°N, 12.97°EUpper Marine Molasse — 48.56°N, 10.06°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Centrophorus granulosus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Centrophorus granulosus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Centrophorus granulosus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

243 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Centrophorus granulosus, 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

16 references

Each of the 33 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. 4 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 granulosus

Credit
Chris_huh
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Centrophorus granulosus 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 itCentrophorus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bloch and Schneider 1801)