Pristidae

Sawfish are a family of very large rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles a saw. They are among the largest fish, with some species reaching lengths around 7–7.6 m (23–25 ft). They are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions in coastal marine and brackish estuarine waters, as well as freshwater rivers and lakes. All species are critically endangered.

Pristidae

Flavia Brandi from Roma, Italy · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
sawfishPBDB
Sits inside
RhinopristiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 153 million years on record.

The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 1.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 157.9 Mya to 210 ka.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 336 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 336 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 11 of 336 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 336 occurrencesEocene — about 227 of 336 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 336 occurrencesMiocene — about 67 of 336 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 336 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 336 occurrences161–156 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences156–150 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145–140 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences140–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–129 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences129–123 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences118–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113–107 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 5 occurrences97–91 Mya — about 3 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–70 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences70–64 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences64–59 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences59–54 Mya — about 8 occurrences54–48 Mya — about 16 occurrences48–43 Mya — about 48 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 57 occurrences38–32 Mya — about 99 occurrences32–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–21 Mya — about 9 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 18 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–5.4 Mya — about 26 occurrences5.4–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences154.8 Mya1.4 Mya161 Mya0 Mya

336 occurrences of Pristidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

336 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

99 formations

Qasr el-Sagha — 29.60°N, 30.67°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.66°N, 30.74°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.32°N, 30.05°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.29°N, 29.99°EBirket Qarun — 29.27°N, 30.06°EBirket Qarun — 29.27°N, 30.01°EBirket Qarun — 29.50°N, 30.56°EGehannam — 29.30°N, 30.05°EGehannam — 29.31°N, 30.18°EGehannam — 29.33°N, 30.08°EMatam — 15.32°N, 13.03°WMatam — 15.31°N, 13.09°WMidawara — 29.03°N, 30.13°EMidawara — 29.08°N, 30.10°EMidawara — 29.00°N, 30.00°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.28°WUrumaco — 11.24°N, 70.22°WAmeki — 5.00°N, 7.50°EAmeki — 5.56°N, 7.52°ELisbon — 31.83°N, 88.31°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WGosport Sand — 31.53°N, 87.57°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 88.50°WSamlat — 23.36°N, 16.03°WSamlat — 23.56°N, 15.91°WYazoo — 31.66°N, 92.90°WYazoo — 31.82°N, 92.33°WYazoo — 31.71°N, 87.96°WYazoo — 32.07°N, 88.96°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WTupelo Bay — 33.24°N, 80.44°WDaba'a — 29.16°N, 27.43°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WCantaure — 11.97°N, 70.02°WCantaure — 11.94°N, 70.02°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WBahariya — 28.43°N, 28.88°ELandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°EMalembo — 5.34°S, 12.18°EDammam — 24.55°N, 51.07°EDammam — 25.43°N, 50.80°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WJacksonian — 32.42°N, 83.43°WJacksonian — 32.74°N, 83.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pristidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 75 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pristidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pristidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,897 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 204 sites for Pristidae, 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

128 references

Each of the 336 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. 116 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 Pristidae

Credit
Flavia Brandi from Roma, Italy
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pristidae 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 itRhinopristiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1838