Palaeocarcharodon

Palaeocarcharodon, also known as the pygmy white shark, is a genus of shark within the family Cretoxyrhinidae, that lived about 61.7 to 55.8 Ma during the Middle Paleocene and Early Eocene. It currently contains a sole species P. orientalis. An additional species, P. landanensis, is now considered a possible synonym of P. orientalis.

Palaeocarcharodon

Hectonichus · 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
Sits inside
OtodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPaleocene — about 8 of 10 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–58 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–56 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61.66 Mya37.71 Mya66.6 Mya33.3 Mya

10 occurrences of Palaeocarcharodon on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

10 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

6 formations

Hornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WLandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°ESyzran — 48.63°N, 44.06°EAquia — 38.89°N, 76.85°WAkzhar — 46.38°N, 64.20°EWilliamsburg — 33.43°N, 80.10°W

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The named rock units Palaeocarcharodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeocarcharodon and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Palaeocarcharodon and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

77 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Palaeocarcharodon, 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

8 references

Each of the 10 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 Palaeocarcharodon

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

No 3D scan of Palaeocarcharodon was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itOtodontidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Casier 1960