Mitsukurina

Mitsukurina is a genus of mackerel shark in the family Mitsukurinidae. It contains one extant species, the goblin shark (M. owstoni) and more extinct species. The genus was described by American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan in 1898 and named in honour of Kakichi Mitsukuri.

Mitsukurina

Michigan State University/USFWS · 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
Sits inside
MitsukurinidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesEocene — about 16 of 31 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 31 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 31 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 31 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 4 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.2–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.07 Mya7.246 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

31 occurrences of Mitsukurina on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

31 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

18 formations

Marnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WDuho — 36.11°N, 129.40°EFilakovo — 48.31°N, 19.70°ELuanda — 8.76°S, 13.30°EMannum — 34.90°S, 139.30°ETortachilla Limestone — 35.23°S, 138.48°ERío Banano — 9.92°N, 83.55°WTukwila — 47.48°N, 122.25°WAchen — 47.88°N, 12.27°EPétervására — 48.24°N, 19.66°EMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WMenilite — 49.63°N, 22.57°EMenilitic — 49.64°N, 18.73°EMarnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WBlanche Point — 34.77°S, 137.90°ECrescent — 47.59°N, 123.20°WTunga — 14.27°S, 76.05°WKressenberg — 47.93°N, 12.97°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mitsukurina has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mitsukurina and its relatives

Eocene

Where Mitsukurina and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

376 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Mitsukurina, 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

20 references

Each of the 31 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. 8 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 content2

Picture of Mitsukurina

Credit
Michigan State University/USFWS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mitsukurina owstoni · zmuc:cn:1

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 itMitsukurinidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jordan 1898