Listracanthus

Listracanthus is a genus of extinct chondrichthyan with uncertain affinities. Species of Listracanthus are known primarily from their tremendous, feather-like denticles, which range up to four inches in length. The denticles had a large main spine, from which secondary spines emanate from the sides, like the barbs of a feather or a comb. Listracanthus first appeared in late Carboniferous strata in North America, and eventually disappear from the fossil record some time during the Early Triassic.

Listracanthus

paleobear · CC BY 2.0 · 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
ListracanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 95 million years on record.

The record covers at least 346.7 Mya to 250.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 247 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 22 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 15 of 22 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 3 of 22 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 4 of 22 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 22 occurrences361–357 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences357–353 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences353–349 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences349–346 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences346–342 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences342–338 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences338–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–330 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences330–326 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences326–322 Mya — about 2 occurrences322–318 Mya — about 4 occurrences318–315 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences315–311 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences311–307 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences307–303 Mya — about 3 occurrences303–299 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences299–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–291 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences291–287 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences276–272 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences272–268 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences268–264 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–256 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences256–253 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences253–249 Mya — about 3 occurrences249–245 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences346.7 Mya250.8 Mya361 Mya245 Mya

22 occurrences of Listracanthus 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

22 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

12 formations

Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.65°N, 2.65°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.70°N, 2.30°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.72°N, 2.08°WSulphur Mountain — 51.15°N, 115.67°WSulphur Mountain — 54.73°N, 119.92°WSulphur Mountain — 54.53°N, 120.74°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.17°N, 1.87°WAltamont Limestone — 37.04°N, 95.53°WMinnelusa — 44.22°N, 103.41°WHeath — 46.95°N, 108.90°WMospyne — 48.24°N, 39.34°EZechstein — 51.10°N, 15.97°EGostov — 52.07°N, 27.74°EPottawatomie — 39.16°N, 94.48°WBrushy Canyon — 31.84°N, 104.86°W

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The named rock units Listracanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Listracanthus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Listracanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

199 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Listracanthus, 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

16 references

Each of the 22 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. 4 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 Listracanthus

Credit
paleobear
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Listracanthus 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 itListracanthidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newberry and Worthen 1870