Cretalamna

Cretalamna is a genus of extinct otodontid shark that lived from the latest Early Cretaceous to Eocene epoch. It is considered by many to be the ancestor of the largest sharks to have ever lived, such as Otodus angustidens, Otodus chubutensis, and Otodus megalodon.

Cretalamna

Kenshu Shimada · 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
OtodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 147 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 11.63 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 419 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 419 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 19 of 419 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 353 of 419 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 33 of 419 occurrencesEocene — about 9 of 419 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 419 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 419 occurrencesMiocene168–163 Mya — about 1 occurrence163–158 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences131–126 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences115–110 Mya — about 3 occurrences110–104 Mya — about 5 occurrences104–99 Mya — about 21 occurrences99–94 Mya — about 53 occurrences94–88 Mya — about 53 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 58 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 50 occurrences78–72 Mya — about 50 occurrences72–67 Mya — about 62 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 29 occurrences62–57 Mya — about 17 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences25–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–8.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence161.5 Mya13.82 Mya168 Mya9 Mya

419 occurrences of Cretalamna 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

419 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

126 formations

Mooreville Chalk — 31.39°N, 87.79°WMooreville Chalk — 32.91°N, 88.08°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.00°WMooreville Chalk — 32.42°N, 87.20°WMooreville Chalk — 32.34°N, 86.40°WMancos Shale — 38.90°N, 107.93°WMancos Shale — 39.00°N, 110.35°WMancos Shale — 36.14°N, 109.82°WMancos Shale — 36.51°N, 110.10°WMancos Shale — 35.73°N, 110.82°WMancos Shale — 36.18°N, 109.88°WMancos Shale — 36.33°N, 109.82°WMancos Shale — 36.00°N, 111.00°WLandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°ECarlile Shale — 39.89°N, 98.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.08°N, 99.24°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 38.72°N, 99.32°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WCarlile Shale — 47.01°N, 107.87°WCarlile Shale — 43.25°N, 103.92°WCarlile Shale — 44.09°N, 104.68°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.87°N, 98.51°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.94°N, 98.80°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.04°N, 98.99°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.17°WNavesink — 40.33°N, 74.26°WNavesink — 40.40°N, 74.13°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WNiobrara — 38.89°N, 101.21°WNiobrara — 39.09°N, 99.24°WNiobrara — 39.08°N, 99.31°WNiobrara — 38.83°N, 100.06°WNiobrara — 38.73°N, 100.23°WNiobrara — 40.71°N, 105.17°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WMenuha — 30.95°N, 35.00°EMenuha — 30.50°N, 34.65°EMenuha — 30.56°N, 34.65°EMenuha — 30.58°N, 34.90°EGreenhorn — 43.29°N, 103.80°WGreenhorn — 44.72°N, 103.67°WGreenhorn — 44.76°N, 103.75°WGreenhorn — 43.29°N, 103.42°WEutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 32.35°N, 86.35°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WEutaw — 32.73°N, 87.68°WAmman — 32.24°N, 36.25°EAmman — 30.81°N, 36.03°EAmman — 29.92°N, 36.17°EAmman — 31.46°N, 35.78°EAmman — 32.03°N, 35.97°EPeedee — 34.81°N, 77.98°WPeedee — 34.48°N, 78.41°WPeedee — 34.38°N, 77.83°WCarlile — 44.75°N, 103.85°WCarlile — 43.64°N, 104.12°WCarlile — 43.91°N, 104.35°WCarlile — 43.96°N, 104.44°WCarlile — 44.14°N, 104.71°WCarlile — 43.40°N, 103.36°WBlack Creek — 34.68°N, 78.23°WBlack Creek — 34.58°N, 78.27°WBlack Creek — 35.23°N, 77.79°WBlack Creek — 35.22°N, 77.68°WMount Laurel — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMount Laurel — 40.38°N, 74.21°WMount Laurel — 39.56°N, 75.63°WAshizawa — 37.17°N, 140.95°EGearle Siltstone — 23.11°S, 114.18°EGearle Siltstone — 22.89°S, 114.14°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 51.23°N, 45.10°EHinoshima — 32.40°N, 130.40°EMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WVitoria — 42.81°N, 2.69°WMishash — 30.87°N, 34.94°EMishash — 30.83°N, 35.08°EMishash — 30.83°N, 34.92°EMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.73°WMerchantville — 39.95°N, 74.99°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cretalamna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 102 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 143 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cretalamna and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,834 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 387 sites for Cretalamna, 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

197 references

Each of the 419 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. 185 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 Cretalamna

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

No 3D scan of Cretalamna 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 itOtodontidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Glikman 1958