Paraisurus

Paraisurus is an extinct genus of mackerel sharks that lived during the Cretaceous period. It contains four valid species, which have been found in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. A fifth species, P. amudarjensis, is considered by some paleontologists a possible synonym of P. compressus, but is debated. While this genus is mostly known from isolated teeth, an associated dentition of P. compressus was found in the Weno Formation of Texas. It went extinct around the Albian-Cenomanian boundary, as a supposed Coniacian occurrence of "P. sp." is likely a misidentified pseudoscapanorhynchid.

Paraisurus

Mason Hintermeister · 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
Sits inside
ParaisuridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 14 of 16 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 16 occurrencesLate Cretaceous122–121 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 1 occurrence106–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–104 Mya — about 1 occurrence104–103 Mya — about 1 occurrence103–102 Mya — about 1 occurrence102–101 Mya — about 1 occurrence101–100 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119.57 Mya100.5 Mya122 Mya93.3 Mya

16 occurrences of Paraisurus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

16 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

Burim — 49.72°N, 31.51°EPawpaw — 32.73°N, 97.32°WGearle Siltstone — 23.11°S, 114.18°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EPaw Paw — 33.03°N, 97.22°WHythe — 51.24°N, 0.05°WSultanbobo — 42.03°N, 60.40°EJiesia — 55.08°N, 24.46°ESekmenevka — 51.29°N, 37.64°E

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The named rock units Paraisurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paraisurus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Paraisurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

169 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Paraisurus, 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 16 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 Paraisurus

Credit
Mason Hintermeister
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Paraisurus 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 itParaisuridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Glikman 1957