Paraorthacodus

Paraorthacodus is an extinct genus of shark. It a member of the family Paraorthacodontidae, which is either placed in Hexanchiformes or in Synechodontiformes. It is known from over a dozen named species spanning from the Early Jurassic to the Paleocene, or possibly Eocene. Almost all members of the genus are exclusively known from isolated teeth, with the exception of P. jurensis from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of Europe, which is known from full body fossils from the Late Jurassic of Germany, which suggest that juveniles had a robust body with a round head, while adults had large body sizes with a fusiform profile. There was only a single dorsal fin towards the back of the body without a fin spine. The dentition had teeth with a single large central cusp along with shorter lateral cusplets, which were designed for clutching. The teeth are distinguished from those of Synechodus by the lateral cusplets decreasing in size linearly away from the central cusp rather than exponentially as in Synechodus.

Paraorthacodus

Ghedoghedo · 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
PalaeospinacidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Synechodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Synechodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Synechodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 151 million years on record.

The record covers at least 199.5 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 127 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 12 of 127 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 127 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 3 of 127 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 22 of 127 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 59 of 127 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 20 of 127 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 127 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 127 occurrences205–199 Mya — about 1 occurrence193–187 Mya — about 4 occurrences187–182 Mya — about 4 occurrences182–176 Mya — about 2 occurrences176–170 Mya — about 2 occurrences170–164 Mya — about 2 occurrences164–158 Mya — about 1 occurrence152–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences141–135 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences135–129 Mya — about 1 occurrence118–112 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences112–106 Mya — about 8 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 12 occurrences100–94 Mya — about 6 occurrences94–89 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences89–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–77 Mya — about 16 occurrences77–71 Mya — about 16 occurrences71–65 Mya — about 15 occurrences65–60 Mya — about 6 occurrences60–54 Mya — about 16 occurrences54–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–42 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences199.5 Mya48.07 Mya205 Mya31 Mya

127 occurrences of Paraorthacodus on record, most of them in the Late 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

127 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

37 formations

Hunstanton — 54.15°N, 0.17°WJudith River — 48.03°N, 109.01°WJudith River — 47.79°N, 108.94°WJudith River — 48.01°N, 108.91°WTienen — 50.78°N, 4.90°ETienen — 50.81°N, 5.09°ETienen — 50.30°N, 4.12°ETienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°EWaipara Greensand — 43.05°S, 172.62°EWaipara Greensand — 43.12°S, 172.48°ETuffeau de St-Omer — 50.53°N, 3.15°ETuffeau de St-Omer — 50.44°N, 3.07°EBurim — 49.72°N, 31.51°ESables de Bracheux — 49.58°N, 2.65°ESables de Bracheux — 49.53°N, 2.75°EMishash — 30.87°N, 34.94°EMishash — 30.83°N, 35.08°ENusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°EHannut — 50.71°N, 5.00°EJasna Gora — 50.46°N, 19.51°ENewhaven Chalk — 50.88°N, 0.81°WNewhaven Chalk — 50.67°N, 1.10°WNorthumberland — 49.55°N, 124.70°WNorthumberland — 49.54°N, 124.71°WObourg — 50.48°N, 4.01°EHeers — 50.71°N, 5.00°EHeers — 50.10°N, 5.00°EBearpaw — 51.27°N, 112.33°WSanta Marta — 63.91°S, 57.88°WCalcaires de Caen — 49.42°N, 0.40°EAquia — 38.45°N, 77.25°WHasle — 55.18°N, 14.72°EGearle Siltstone — 23.11°S, 114.18°ERya — 55.98°N, 12.79°EMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°ELiegende Bankkalk — 48.12°N, 8.87°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Paraorthacodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 55 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paraorthacodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Paraorthacodus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

669 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 118 sites for Paraorthacodus, 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

52 references

Each of the 127 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. 40 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 Paraorthacodus

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

No 3D scan of Paraorthacodus 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 itPalaeospinacidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

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