Chondrichthyes

Searched as Chondrichthyes indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Chondrichthyes as the accepted name.

Chondrichthyes is a class of jawed fish that contains the cartilaginous fish or chondrichthyans, which all have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or bony fish, which have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. Chondrichthyes are aquatic vertebrates with paired fins, paired nares, placoid scales, and conus arteriosus in the heart. Within the infraphylum Gnathostomata, cartilaginous fishes are distinct from all other jawed vertebrates.

Chondrichthyes

Prehistoricplanes · 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
Also called
cartilaginous fishPBDB
Sits inside
GnathostomataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 432 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 438.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 275 occurrencesSilurian — about 1 of 275 occurrencesDevonian — about 13 of 275 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 25 of 275 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 9 of 275 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 3 of 275 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 2 of 275 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 14 of 275 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 3 of 275 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 6 of 275 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 3 of 275 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 4 of 275 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 51 of 275 occurrencesPaleocene — about 11 of 275 occurrencesEocene — about 50 of 275 occurrencesOligocene — about 17 of 275 occurrencesMiocene — about 39 of 275 occurrencesPliocene — about 13 of 275 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 275 occurrences447–432 Mya — about 1 occurrence432–418 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences418–403 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences403–388 Mya — about 4 occurrences388–373 Mya — about 6 occurrences373–358 Mya — about 3 occurrences358–343 Mya — about 9 occurrences343–328 Mya — about 6 occurrences328–313 Mya — about 5 occurrences313–298 Mya — about 6 occurrences298–283 Mya — about 1 occurrence283–268 Mya — about 3 occurrences268–254 Mya — about 4 occurrences254–239 Mya — about 6 occurrences239–224 Mya — about 4 occurrences224–209 Mya — about 5 occurrences209–194 Mya — about 6 occurrences194–179 Mya — about 2 occurrences179–164 Mya — about 5 occurrences164–149 Mya — about 3 occurrences149–134 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences134–119 Mya — about 1 occurrence119–104 Mya — about 2 occurrences104–89 Mya — about 16 occurrences89–75 Mya — about 24 occurrences75–60 Mya — about 19 occurrences60–45 Mya — about 19 occurrences45–30 Mya — about 41 occurrences30–15 Mya — about 31 occurrences15–0 Mya — about 42 occurrences432.9 Mya11.7 ka447 Mya0 Mya

275 occurrences of Chondrichthyes on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

275 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

142 formations

Aguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.46°N, 103.56°WLisbon — 31.30°N, 86.48°WLisbon — 31.83°N, 88.25°WLisbon — 31.75°N, 88.10°WLisbon — 31.50°N, 87.80°WLisbon — 31.32°N, 86.73°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WChinle — 34.94°N, 109.77°WChinle — 36.33°N, 106.47°WVaqueros — 34.33°N, 119.03°WVaqueros — 34.38°N, 118.84°WVaqueros — 34.36°N, 118.91°WVaqueros — 34.37°N, 119.33°WVaqueros — 34.53°N, 120.31°WKeasey — 45.77°N, 123.24°WKeasey — 45.98°N, 123.28°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WTallahatta — 31.87°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 84.93°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.53°N, 87.57°WGosport Sand — 31.13°N, 87.93°WIfezouane — 30.79°N, 4.29°WMasuk — 38.08°N, 110.93°WMasuk — 38.09°N, 110.96°WMoodys Branch — 32.95°N, 90.17°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMuldraugh — 40.04°N, 86.87°WByram — 32.41°N, 90.84°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.71°WMonterey — 33.79°N, 117.85°WIsalo IIIb — 16.55°S, 46.98°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EKayenta — 35.97°N, 111.25°WKayenta — 35.76°N, 111.08°WLa Pasada — 35.67°N, 105.28°WLa Meseta — 64.22°S, 56.64°WLa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.66°WAridal — 25.15°N, 13.32°WAridal — 25.44°N, 13.72°WHorcón — 32.70°S, 71.46°WBrazer Dolomite — 40.16°N, 110.40°WRamp Creek — 39.33°N, 86.67°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.58°N, 2.43°WAllen — 40.06°S, 66.80°WAllen — 40.73°S, 67.17°W

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The named rock units Chondrichthyes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 118 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 49 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chondrichthyes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

3,471 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 625 sites for Chondrichthyes, and this reads 240 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

173 references

Each of the 275 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. 161 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 content2

Picture of Chondrichthyes

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Chondrichthyes indet. · fmnh:pf:15270

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 itGnathostomata through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Huxley 1880