Ageleodus
Ageleodus is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Paleozoic era. It is known from two species, both of which are based upon isolated teeth. A. pectinatus is known from the Carboniferous of Europe and North America. A. altus was described in 2006 from the Carboniferous of Australia. Four teeth from the Tournaisian deposits of Canning Basin probably present another Australian species although their shape is likely caused by physical wear rather than species features. This genus is also known from the Famennian of the Catskill formation at the Red Hill Site in Hyner, Pennsylvania. A study of 382 specimens from the site showed the strong heterodonty of this genus, which varies widely in tooth length and cusp number. This study described them as A. pectinatus, but the paper which described A. altus tentatively labeled them Ageleodus cf. A. altus. While generally considered a chondrichthyan, it has eluded classification into any known order or family.

Mason Hintermeister · 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
- HolocephaliPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Holocephali
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Holocephali
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Holocephali
Time the record covers
At least 43 million years on record.
The record covers at least 358.86 Mya to 315.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 372.15 Mya to 303.7 Mya.
6 occurrences of Ageleodus 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
6 occurrences- Devonian33%
- Carboniferous67%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Ageleodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ageleodus and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Ageleodus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
28 taxa- Acanthodes1 site
- Ctenacanthidae1 site
- Ctenoptychius apicalis1 site
- Densignathus rowei1 site
- Diplodus tenuis1 site
- Dipteridae1 site
- Elonichthys pulcherrimus1 site
- Gigantocharinus szatmaryi1 site
- Groenlandaspis pennsylvanica1 site
- Helodus simplex1 site
- Hynerpeton bassetti1 site
- Janassa linguaeformis1 site
- Megalichthys1 site
- Onychodus1 site
- Orsadesmus rubecollus1 site
- Orthacanthus1 site
- Orthacanthus gibbosus1 site
- Phyllolepis rossimontina1 site
- Pleuracanthus cylindricus1 site
- Porolepidiformes1 site
- Protacrodus1 site
- Rhadinichthys1 site
- Rhadinichthys macconochii1 site
- Rhadinichthys tuberculatus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Ageleodus, 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
4 references- Variation within a large sample of Ageleodus pectinatus teeth (Chondrichthyes) from the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania, USA2
- Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History) Part 12
- Additions to the Middle Pennsylvanian Ash Branch fossil vertebrate fauna1
- Vertebrate correlation of the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous on the East European Platform1
Each of the 6 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 Ageleodus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Mason Hintermeister
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Ageleodus 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Ageleodus”
- 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 itHolocephali through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1867