Heterodontus

The bullhead sharks are members of the genus Heterodontus, the only members of the family Heterodontidae and only living members of the order Heterodontiformes. All are relatively small, with the largest species reaching just 1.65 metres (5.5 ft) in maximum length. They are bottom feeders in tropical and subtropical waters.

Heterodontus

Cymothoa exigua · 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
bullhead sharkPBDB
Sits inside
HeterodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 239 million years on record.

The record covers at least 239.48 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 241.464 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 1 of 296 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 296 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 296 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 296 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 3 of 296 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 51 of 296 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 79 of 296 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 18 of 296 occurrencesEocene — about 82 of 296 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 296 occurrencesMiocene — about 37 of 296 occurrencesPliocene — about 9 of 296 occurrencesPleistocene — about 7 of 296 occurrences246–238 Mya — about 1 occurrence189–181 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences181–172 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences172–164 Mya — about 1 occurrence156–148 Mya — about 2 occurrences148–140 Mya — about 2 occurrences140–131 Mya — about 6 occurrences131–123 Mya — about 3 occurrences123–115 Mya — about 11 occurrences115–107 Mya — about 12 occurrences107–99 Mya — about 22 occurrences99–90 Mya — about 19 occurrences90–82 Mya — about 13 occurrences82–74 Mya — about 19 occurrences74–66 Mya — about 23 occurrences66–57 Mya — about 12 occurrences57–49 Mya — about 22 occurrences49–41 Mya — about 41 occurrences41–33 Mya — about 25 occurrences33–25 Mya — about 6 occurrences25–16 Mya — about 14 occurrences16–8.2 Mya — about 14 occurrences8.2–0 Mya — about 27 occurrences239.48 Mya11.7 ka246 Mya0 Mya

296 occurrences of Heterodontus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

296 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

113 formations

Selsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WMarnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WBurim — 49.71°N, 31.54°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.98°S, 145.05°EMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WLondon Clay — 51.38°N, 0.24°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WSables de Bracheux — 49.58°N, 2.65°ESables de Bracheux — 49.53°N, 2.75°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WGehannam — 29.33°N, 30.08°EGehannam — 29.30°N, 30.05°EHunstanton — 54.15°N, 0.17°WHunstanton — 53.68°N, 0.50°WJiesia — 55.06°N, 24.37°EHythe — 51.19°N, 0.73°EHythe — 51.24°N, 0.05°WHythe — 51.24°N, 0.10°WMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.68°EDongen — 52.73°N, 6.30°EDongen — 53.16°N, 6.22°EFossil Bluff Sandstone — 40.98°S, 145.73°EOsinovaya — 48.46°N, 41.83°EOsinovaya — 48.38°N, 41.93°EOsinovaya — 48.40°N, 41.76°EObourg — 50.47°N, 4.03°ENavidad — 33.91°S, 71.84°WTuffeau de St-Omer — 50.53°N, 3.15°ETuffeau de St-Omer — 50.44°N, 3.07°ECoquimbo — 30.00°S, 71.33°WCoquimbo — 30.32°S, 71.44°WJan Juc — 38.33°S, 144.30°EFyansford — 38.18°S, 144.50°EParana — 31.38°S, 60.23°WParana — 32.08°S, 60.49°W

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The named rock units Heterodontus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 89 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 87 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heterodontus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Heterodontus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,786 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 248 sites for Heterodontus, 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

138 references

Each of the 296 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. 126 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 content3

Picture of Heterodontus

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Heterodontus francisci · na:HSU 81-226

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itHeterodontidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. de Blainville 1816