Xenacanthus

Xenacanthus is an extinct genus of xenacanthid shark. It lived in freshwater environments, and fossils of various species have been found worldwide.

Xenacanthus

Gasmasque · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
XenacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Xenacanthiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Xenacanthiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Xenacanthiformes

Time the record covers

At least 78 million years on record.

The record covers at least 306 Mya to 227.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 312.8 Mya to 205.7 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 3 of 50 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 44 of 50 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 50 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 50 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 3 of 50 occurrencesLate Triassic315–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–308 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences308–304 Mya — about 1 occurrence304–300 Mya — about 1 occurrence300–296 Mya — about 3 occurrences296–293 Mya — about 4 occurrences293–289 Mya — about 4 occurrences289–285 Mya — about 5 occurrences285–282 Mya — about 7 occurrences282–278 Mya — about 9 occurrences278–274 Mya — about 8 occurrences274–270 Mya — about 2 occurrences270–267 Mya — about 2 occurrences267–263 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences241–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–233 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences233–230 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences230–226 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences226–222 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences222–218 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences218–215 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences215–211 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences211–207 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences207–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences306 Mya227.3 Mya315 Mya204 Mya

50 occurrences of Xenacanthus on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

50 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

22 formations

Vale — 33.68°N, 99.58°WVale — 33.76°N, 99.55°WVale — 33.74°N, 99.41°WVale — 33.67°N, 99.78°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WWellington — 36.16°N, 97.34°WWellington — 36.35°N, 97.43°WWellington — 36.74°N, 97.42°WWellington — 36.30°N, 97.30°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.15°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.12°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.14°N, 106.62°WKildare Capes — 46.12°N, 62.96°WKildare Capes — 46.18°N, 62.92°WKildare Capes — 46.19°N, 62.95°WCutler — 37.17°N, 109.85°WCutler — 36.16°N, 106.65°WChickasha — 36.01°N, 98.36°WChickasha — 35.94°N, 98.21°WBead Mountain — 34.13°N, 98.62°WBluewater Creek — 35.42°N, 108.49°WTecovas — 33.43°N, 101.16°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WSan Angelo — 34.10°N, 99.73°WMaleri — 19.22°N, 79.58°EChoza — 33.82°N, 99.56°WAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WGarber — 36.66°N, 97.69°WSangre de Cristo — 34.64°N, 107.18°WProsečné — 50.57°N, 15.72°EBoggy — 34.43°N, 96.96°WMattoon — 38.44°N, 87.86°WEstrada Nova — 30.96°S, 54.99°WEgmont Bay — 46.32°N, 63.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Xenacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Xenacanthus and its relatives

Permian

Where Xenacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

185 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Xenacanthus, 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

24 references

Each of the 50 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. 12 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 Xenacanthus

Credit
Gasmasque
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Xenacanthus 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 itXenacanthidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Beyrich 1848