Ctenacanthus

Ctenacanthus is an extinct genus of ctenacanthiform chondrichthyan. Remains have been found in the Bloyd Formation of Arkansas and the Cleveland Shale of Ohio in the United States and in South America.

Ctenacanthus

Louis Agassiz · Public Domain · 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
CtenacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ctenacanthiformes

Time the record covers

At least 133 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 410.62 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Devonian — about 5 of 49 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 23 of 49 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 21 of 49 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 49 occurrences414–408 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences408–403 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences403–397 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences397–392 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences392–386 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences375–370 Mya — about 1 occurrence370–364 Mya — about 1 occurrence364–359 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences359–353 Mya — about 1 occurrence353–348 Mya — about 1 occurrence348–342 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences342–337 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences337–331 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences331–326 Mya — about 2 occurrences326–320 Mya — about 1 occurrence320–315 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences315–309 Mya — about 7 occurrences309–304 Mya — about 8 occurrences304–298 Mya — about 1 occurrence298–293 Mya — about 3 occurrences293–287 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences287–282 Mya — about 2 occurrences282–276 Mya — about 2 occurrences276–271 Mya — about 3 occurrences271–265 Mya — about 2 occurrences265–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–254 Mya — about 6 occurrences254–249 Mya — about 3 occurrences387.95 Mya254.14 Mya414 Mya249 Mya

49 occurrences of Ctenacanthus 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

49 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

20 formations

Minturn — 39.91°N, 106.73°WZechstein — 51.23°N, 8.89°EZechstein — 51.49°N, 6.55°EZewan — 34.00°N, 75.00°EZewan — 34.09°N, 74.98°EPhosphoria — 42.75°N, 108.80°WPhosphoria — 43.19°N, 109.16°WPhosphoria — 42.67°N, 108.68°WHeath — 46.54°N, 110.43°WHeath — 46.67°N, 109.13°WPimenteira — 7.00°S, 42.00°WCleveland Shale — 41.48°N, 81.67°WGrenola — 38.95°N, 96.40°WGrenola — 39.00°N, 96.60°WFort Payne — 34.88°N, 87.66°WWellington — 36.35°N, 97.43°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.12°WGray Mesa — 34.10°N, 106.80°WCarbondale — 39.28°N, 89.88°WMoran — 32.50°N, 100.06°WLawrence — 38.85°N, 95.17°WWinfield — 38.69°N, 96.93°WKupferschiefer — 50.97°N, 10.01°EEstrada Nova — 30.96°S, 54.99°WRio Bonito — 26.34°S, 49.92°WBahram — 30.72°N, 57.00°E

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The named rock units Ctenacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ctenacanthus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Ctenacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

258 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Ctenacanthus, 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

29 references

Each of the 49 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. 17 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 Ctenacanthus

Credit
Louis Agassiz
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1836