Agaleus dorsetensis

Agaleus is an extinct genus of stem-galeomorph shark from the Early Jurassic Epoch. The genus Agaleus is monotypic, consisting solely of the species Agaleus dorsetensis. This species is currently only known from isolated teeth. It is the oldest known unambiguous crown group shark.

Agaleus dorsetensis

Rees, J. · 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
AgaleusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 16 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 199.5 Mya and 184.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Jurassic — about 11 of 11 occurrencesEarly Jurassic200–199 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences192–192 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences191–191 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences190–190 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences190–189 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences189–189 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences189–188 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences188–188 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences186–186 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences185–185 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences184–184 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences200 Mya183.7 Mya

11 occurrences of Agaleus dorsetensis on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

11 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

3 formations

Hasle — 55.18°N, 14.72°ERya — 55.98°N, 12.79°EBlue Lias — 50.73°N, 2.93°W

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The named rock units Agaleus dorsetensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Agaleus dorsetensis and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Agaleus dorsetensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

42 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Agaleus dorsetensis, 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 11 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 content1

Picture of Agaleus dorsetensis

Credit
Rees, J.
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Agaleus dorsetensis 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 itAgaleus through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Duffin and Ward 1983