Pristis lathami

Pristis lathami is a species of extinct sawfish in the family Pristidae. It lived in the Eocene era in areas including Egypt, Nigeria, Togo, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Western Sahara, in marine areas, estuaries, bays, open shallow subtidal areas, coastal, marginal marine areas, deep waters, offshore, and fluvial-deltaic areas. P. lathami has 53 occurrences, with 1 being found in Egypt with a rostal tooth about 10 cm in length.

Pristis lathami

Uncredited · 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
PristisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 48 occurrencesEocene — about 46 of 48 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 48 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48.07 Mya33.9 Mya56.6 Mya26.7 Mya

48 occurrences of Pristis lathami on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

48 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

26 formations

Selsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WQasr el-Sagha — 29.60°N, 30.67°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.32°N, 30.05°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.29°N, 29.99°EGehannam — 29.31°N, 30.18°EGehannam — 29.32°N, 30.07°EBirket Qarun — 29.27°N, 30.06°EBirket Qarun — 29.50°N, 30.56°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.90°N, 90.19°WYazoo — 31.82°N, 92.33°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WAmeki — 5.00°N, 7.50°EAmeki — 5.56°N, 7.52°ESamlat — 23.36°N, 16.03°WMidawara — 29.08°N, 30.10°EChitarwata — 29.02°N, 68.99°EChitarwata — 28.85°N, 69.13°ELandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°ELisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WTupelo Bay — 33.24°N, 80.44°WJacksonian — 32.74°N, 83.50°WIlaro — 6.70°N, 3.23°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WDaba'a — 29.16°N, 27.43°EStone City — 30.67°N, 96.56°WAridal — 25.09°N, 13.89°WKortrijk Clay — 50.80°N, 3.22°EBrussel Sand — 50.79°N, 4.37°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pristis lathami has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pristis lathami and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pristis lathami and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

808 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Pristis lathami, 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

26 references

Each of the 48 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. 14 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 Pristis lathami

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Pristis lathami 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 itPristis through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Galeotti 1837