Expleuracanthus

Xenacanthus is an extinct genus of xenacanthid shark. It lived in freshwater environments, and fossils of various species have been found worldwide.

Expleuracanthus

Gasmasque · 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
XenacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Xenacanthiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Xenacanthiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Xenacanthiformes

Time the record covers

At least 73 million years on record.

The record covers at least 315.2 Mya to 241.464 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 323.4 Mya to 239.48 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 15 of 23 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 5 of 23 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 23 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 23 occurrencesMiddle Triassic325–322 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences322–319 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences319–316 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences316–313 Mya — about 3 occurrences313–311 Mya — about 4 occurrences311–308 Mya — about 4 occurrences308–305 Mya — about 1 occurrence305–302 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences302–299 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences299–296 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences296–293 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences293–290 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences290–287 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences287–284 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences284–281 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences281–279 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences279–276 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences276–273 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences249–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–244 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences244–241 Mya — about 2 occurrences241–238 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences315.2 Mya241.464 Mya325 Mya238 Mya

23 occurrences of Expleuracanthus on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

23 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

4 formations

Ashfield Shale — 33.91°S, 151.19°EGarber — 36.77°N, 97.77°WProsecne — 50.56°N, 15.66°EBoruszowice — 50.45°N, 18.78°E

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The named rock units Expleuracanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Expleuracanthus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Expleuracanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

92 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Expleuracanthus, 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

8 references

Each of the 23 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. 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 Expleuracanthus

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

No 3D scan of Expleuracanthus 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 itXenacanthidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Heyler 1969