Hexanchidae

Cow sharks are a shark family, the Hexanchidae, characterized by an additional pair or pairs of gill slits. Its species are placed within the 11 genera: Gladioserratus, Heptranchias, Hexanchus, Notidanodon, Notorynchus, Pachyhexanchus, Paraheptranchias, Pseudonotidanus, Welcommia, Weltonia, and Xampylodon.

Hexanchidae

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
cow sharkPBDB
Sits inside
HexanchiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Hexanchiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Hexanchiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Hexanchiformes

Time the record covers

At least 264 million years on record.

The record covers at least 264.28 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 266.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Permian — about 1 of 524 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 524 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 524 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 524 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 3 of 524 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 524 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 524 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 61 of 524 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 111 of 524 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 44 of 524 occurrencesEocene — about 119 of 524 occurrencesOligocene — about 35 of 524 occurrencesMiocene — about 115 of 524 occurrencesPliocene — about 21 of 524 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 524 occurrences272–263 Mya — about 1 occurrence200–191 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences191–181 Mya — about 2 occurrences172–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–154 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences154–145 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences145–136 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences136–127 Mya — about 5 occurrences127–118 Mya — about 8 occurrences118–109 Mya — about 10 occurrences109–100 Mya — about 40 occurrences100–91 Mya — about 24 occurrences91–82 Mya — about 27 occurrences82–73 Mya — about 28 occurrences73–64 Mya — about 48 occurrences64–54 Mya — about 33 occurrences54–45 Mya — about 37 occurrences45–36 Mya — about 55 occurrences36–27 Mya — about 48 occurrences27–18 Mya — about 26 occurrences18–9.1 Mya — about 78 occurrences9.1–0 Mya — about 52 occurrences264.28 Mya11.7 ka272 Mya0 Mya

524 occurrences of Hexanchidae 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

524 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

184 formations

Hunstanton — 54.15°N, 0.17°WHunstanton — 53.68°N, 0.50°WMarnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WGehannam — 29.36°N, 30.16°EGehannam — 29.33°N, 30.08°EGehannam — 29.32°N, 30.17°EGehannam — 29.30°N, 30.05°ECalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 37.54°N, 77.44°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSpeeton Clay — 54.16°N, 0.26°WSpeeton Clay — 54.16°N, 0.24°WNorthumberland — 49.55°N, 124.70°WNorthumberland — 49.54°N, 124.71°WLillebælt Clay — 55.60°N, 9.80°EHornerstown — 40.10°N, 73.00°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHinoshima — 32.40°N, 130.40°EMenilite — 49.63°N, 22.57°EMenilite — 49.73°N, 22.05°EMenilite — 49.78°N, 22.14°EGault — 51.08°N, 1.18°EGault — 51.94°N, 0.64°WGault — 51.93°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.64°N, 0.78°EBreda — 51.97°N, 6.73°EBreda — 52.15°N, 6.61°EBreda — 51.47°N, 5.80°ELa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.26°S, 56.78°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.29°S, 56.74°WDongen — 52.73°N, 6.30°EDongen — 53.16°N, 6.22°EYamaga — 33.99°N, 130.82°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WKøbenhavn Limestone — 55.57°N, 12.93°EBirket Qarun — 29.27°N, 30.06°EBirket Qarun — 29.28°N, 30.03°EBerchem — 51.20°N, 4.44°EGerhartsreit — 47.94°N, 13.01°ERío Baguales — 50.73°S, 72.47°WNierental — 47.66°N, 14.86°E

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The named rock units Hexanchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 160 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 126 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hexanchidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Hexanchidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

4,046 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 418 sites for Hexanchidae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

239 references

Each of the 524 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. 227 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 Hexanchidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hexanchidae 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 itHexanchiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1851