Petalodus

Petalodus is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Pennsylvanian to the Permian, known from subtriangular to rhomboidal teeth. The genus was named by Richard Owen in 1840 and the type species is Petalodus hastingsii. The only dubious species within this genus is P. securiger.

Petalodus

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PetalodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Petalodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Petalodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Petalodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 330.3 Mya to 274.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 264.9 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 60 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 50 of 60 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 10 of 60 occurrencesPermian361–357 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences357–354 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences354–351 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences351–348 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences348–344 Mya — about 2 occurrences344–341 Mya — about 2 occurrences341–338 Mya — about 2 occurrences338–335 Mya — about 2 occurrences335–331 Mya — about 2 occurrences331–328 Mya — about 1 occurrence328–325 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences325–322 Mya — about 1 occurrence322–318 Mya — about 1 occurrence318–315 Mya — about 1 occurrence315–312 Mya — about 4 occurrences312–309 Mya — about 4 occurrences309–305 Mya — about 8 occurrences305–302 Mya — about 10 occurrences302–299 Mya — about 5 occurrences299–296 Mya — about 3 occurrences296–292 Mya — about 2 occurrences292–289 Mya — about 1 occurrence289–286 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences286–283 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences279–276 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences276–273 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences273–270 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences270–266 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences266–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences330.3 Mya274.4 Mya361 Mya263 Mya

60 occurrences of Petalodus on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

60 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

16 formations

Grenola — 37.35°N, 96.80°WGrenola — 38.95°N, 96.40°WGrenola — 39.00°N, 96.60°WSte. Genevieve — 37.19°N, 86.10°WForaker — 39.20°N, 96.57°WForaker — 36.07°N, 96.72°WGlenshaw — 40.43°N, 79.30°WGlenshaw — 40.38°N, 79.75°WForaker Limestone — 39.27°N, 96.44°WFlechado — 36.41°N, 105.57°WIchinotani — 36.22°N, 137.51°EMizuyagadani — 36.23°N, 137.52°ENabeyama — 36.40°N, 139.60°ENaco — 34.33°N, 111.12°WGray Mesa — 34.10°N, 106.80°WCorona — 46.52°N, 13.31°EAltamont Limestone — 37.04°N, 95.53°WOread — 38.72°N, 95.43°WBarneston Limestone — 39.07°N, 96.54°WAbo — 34.64°N, 107.18°W

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The named rock units Petalodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Petalodus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Petalodus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

426 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Petalodus, 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

29 references

Each of the 60 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. 17 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 Petalodus

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Petalodus 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 itPetalodontidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.