Acondylacanthus

Acondylacanthus is an extinct genus of ctenacanthiform from the Paleozoic era. The type species is A. gracilis. Most species are known from the Carboniferous of America and the British isles. A. jaekeli is known from the upper Frasnian of Germany and the Upper Famennian of Russia. This genus is based entirely upon isolated dorsal fin spines, and thus may later be found synonymous with tooth-based genera. Many species have been ascribed to this genus, though there has been some confusion with Ctenachanthus. This genus is in need of review and research.

No picture of Acondylacanthus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Acondylacanthus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CtenacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes

Time the record covers

At least 128 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 259.857 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 254.14 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 10 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 7 of 10 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 2 of 10 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 10 occurrences396–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–387 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences362–358 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences358–353 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences353–348 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences348–343 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences343–338 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences338–333 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences333–329 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences329–324 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences324–319 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences319–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–309 Mya — about 1 occurrence309–304 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences276–271 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences271–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences261–256 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences256–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences387.95 Mya259.857 Mya396 Mya251 Mya

10 occurrences of Acondylacanthus on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

10 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

4 formations

Phosphoria — 43.35°N, 109.40°WPhosphoria — 42.67°N, 108.68°WNaco — 34.33°N, 111.12°WMinturn — 39.91°N, 106.75°WDundee Limestone — 42.25°N, 83.28°W

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The named rock units Acondylacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acondylacanthus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Acondylacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

143 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Acondylacanthus, 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

7 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 content0

No picture of Acondylacanthus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Acondylacanthus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Acondylacanthus 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 itCtenacanthidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.