Odontaspis ferox

The smalltooth sand tiger or bumpytail ragged-tooth is a species of mackerel shark in the family Odontaspididae, with a patchy but worldwide distribution in tropical and warm temperate waters. They usually inhabit deepwater rocky habitats, though they are occasionally encountered in shallow water, and have been known to return to the same location year after year. This rare species is often mistaken for the much more common sand tiger shark, from which it can be distinguished by its first dorsal fin, which is larger than the second and placed further forward. It grows to at least 5.2 m (17 ft) in length. They have also been recently sighted in Irish and English waters.

Odontaspis ferox

出羽雀台 · 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
Also called
smalltooth sand tigerPBDB
Sits inside
OdontaspisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 30 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Eocene — about 2 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.7–5.5 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences33.9 Mya3.6 Mya38.4 Mya1.9 Mya

13 occurrences of Odontaspis ferox on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

13 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

9 formations

Navidad — 33.91°S, 71.85°WTavda — 55.34°N, 65.35°ETavda — 56.70°N, 63.15°ECubagua — 10.60°N, 64.24°WJewett — 35.49°N, 118.85°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°EBahía Inglesa — 27.16°S, 70.89°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Odontaspis ferox has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Odontaspis ferox and its relatives

Miocene

Where Odontaspis ferox and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

470 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Odontaspis ferox, 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

10 references

Each of the 13 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 Odontaspis ferox

Credit
出羽雀台
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Odontaspis ferox 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 itOdontaspis through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Risso 1826)