Pristis

Pristis is a genus of sawfish of the family Pristidae. These large fish are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions in coastal marine waters, estuaries, and freshwater lakes and rivers. Sawfish have declined drastically and all species are considered critically endangered today.

Pristis

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
Sits inside
PristidaePBDB
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 1 of 187 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 187 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 187 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 187 occurrencesEocene — about 108 of 187 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 187 occurrencesMiocene — about 61 of 187 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 187 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 187 occurrences161–156 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences156–150 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences145–140 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences140–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences75–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–59 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences59–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–48 Mya — about 9 occurrences48–43 Mya — about 26 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 29 occurrences38–32 Mya — about 41 occurrences32–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–21 Mya — about 6 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 15 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–5.4 Mya — about 23 occurrences5.4–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences154.8 Mya1.4 Mya161 Mya0 Mya

187 occurrences of Pristis 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

187 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

73 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°EUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.28°WUrumaco — 11.24°N, 70.22°WMatam — 15.32°N, 13.03°WMatam — 15.31°N, 13.09°WBirket Qarun — 29.27°N, 30.06°EBirket Qarun — 29.28°N, 30.04°EBirket Qarun — 29.50°N, 30.56°EYazoo — 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°WGehannam — 29.30°N, 30.05°EGehannam — 29.31°N, 30.18°EGehannam — 29.32°N, 30.07°ELisbon — 31.83°N, 88.31°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WCantaure — 11.97°N, 70.02°WCantaure — 11.94°N, 70.02°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WMidawara — 29.08°N, 30.10°ETallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WGosport Sand — 31.53°N, 87.57°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 88.50°WMalembo — 5.34°S, 12.18°ELaredo — 27.53°N, 99.43°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.90°N, 90.19°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WTupelo Bay — 33.24°N, 80.44°WJacksonian — 32.42°N, 83.43°WJacksonian — 32.74°N, 83.50°WAmeki — 5.00°N, 7.50°EAmeki — 5.56°N, 7.52°ESamlat — 23.36°N, 16.03°WDaba'a — 29.16°N, 27.43°EChitarwata — 29.02°N, 68.99°EChitarwata — 28.85°N, 69.13°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pristis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 49 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pristis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pristis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,454 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 157 sites for Pristis, 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

98 references

Each of the 187 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. 86 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 content2

Picture of Pristis

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pristis pectinata · UF:Fish:59431

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 itPristidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linck 1790