Protolamna

Protolamna is an extinct genus of large mackerel shark from the Cretaceous Period. Protolamna fossils indicate gigantism evolved early on in the history of lamniforms.

Protolamna

via GBIF · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
PseudoscapanorhynchidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 60 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 82 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 34 of 82 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 48 of 82 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 82 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–131 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 5 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 5 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 2 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 3 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 2 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 1 occurrence110–107 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 4 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 5 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 6 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 8 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 7 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 2 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–86 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 6 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 4 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 4 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences132.6 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

82 occurrences of Protolamna 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

82 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

33 formations

Burim — 49.71°N, 31.54°ENavesink — 40.35°N, 74.17°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EEutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 33.49°N, 88.39°WContinental Intercalaire — 33.19°N, 10.29°EPaja — 5.63°N, 73.58°WBlufftown — 32.16°N, 85.03°WColeraine — 47.42°N, 93.08°WCusseta — 32.14°N, 84.95°WDonoho Creek — 34.06°N, 79.53°WMount Laurel — 40.30°N, 74.30°WLa Cabaña — 43.34°N, 5.84°WJudith River — 47.74°N, 108.96°WLewisville — 32.88°N, 97.07°WPaw Paw — 33.03°N, 97.22°WDunvegan — 55.92°N, 118.29°WHunstanton — 53.68°N, 0.50°WEl Castellar — 40.67°N, 0.67°WHinoshima — 32.40°N, 130.40°ESebayashi — 36.07°N, 138.83°ETamagawa — 40.19°N, 141.78°EBurgsteinfurt — 52.19°S, 7.17°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Protolamna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protolamna and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

577 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 81 sites for Protolamna, 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

53 references

Each of the 82 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. 41 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 Protolamna

Source
GBIF
Credit
via GBIF
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protolamna 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 itPseudoscapanorhynchidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cappetta 1980