Cretodus

Cretodus is an extinct genus of large mackerel sharks belonging to the proposed family Pseudoscapanorhynchidae. Cretodus lived during the Late Cretaceous, ranging from the Cenomanian to the Coniacian. The genus is well-known from strata deposited in the Western Interior Seaway, and from the Late Cretaceous of Europe, Africa, and possibly Asia. Cretodus is primarily represented in the fossil record by isolated teeth and vertebral centra, though a couple of associated dentitions and vertebral columns have been found.

Cretodus

Uncredited · 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
PseudoscapanorhynchidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 22 of 113 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 91 of 113 occurrencesLate Cretaceous122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 3 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 2 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 2 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 2 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 3 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 3 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 4 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 11 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 11 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 11 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 12 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 14 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 14 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 4 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 3 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 3 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 3 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113.2 Mya83.6 Mya122 Mya71 Mya

113 occurrences of Cretodus 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

113 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

42 formations

Carlile Shale — 39.30°N, 98.45°WCarlile Shale — 43.40°N, 103.36°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WCarlile Shale — 39.06°N, 99.11°WCarlile Shale — 43.25°N, 103.92°WCarlile Shale — 44.09°N, 104.68°WCarlile Shale — 38.10°N, 101.96°WPaluxy — 32.95°N, 97.69°WPaluxy — 31.95°N, 97.89°WPaluxy — 33.03°N, 97.60°WPaluxy — 31.87°N, 98.86°WPaluxy — 32.36°N, 97.99°WPaluxy — 31.79°N, 98.83°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WGreenhorn Limestone — 34.98°N, 103.41°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 32.66°N, 10.21°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EMancos Shale — 39.00°N, 110.35°WMancos Shale — 38.36°N, 110.82°WMancos Shale — 36.18°N, 109.88°WMancos Shale — 35.47°N, 106.20°WCarlile — 36.12°N, 104.74°WCarlile — 43.96°N, 104.44°WCarlile — 44.14°N, 104.71°WColeraine — 47.42°N, 93.08°WEutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 32.32°N, 86.39°WDunvegan — 55.91°N, 118.35°WDunvegan — 55.92°N, 118.60°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WJiesia — 55.06°N, 24.37°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WDakota — 38.92°N, 98.50°WBelle Fourche — 43.29°N, 103.80°WBelle Fourche — 43.97°N, 103.18°WMaisières — 50.49°N, 3.96°EGreenhorn — 44.76°N, 103.75°WGreenhorn — 44.67°N, 103.70°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WNiobrara — 53.17°N, 103.50°WBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.92°EWalnut Clay — 32.15°N, 97.58°WTravis Peak — 32.85°N, 97.96°WKarai — 11.10°N, 78.90°ETucumcari — 35.11°N, 103.33°WTres Hermanos — 34.31°N, 106.74°WPictured Cliffs Sandstone — 35.70°N, 107.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cretodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cretodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

572 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 105 sites for Cretodus, 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

69 references

Each of the 113 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. 57 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 Cretodus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Cretodus 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. Sokolov 1965