Dalatias licha

The kitefin shark or seal shark is a species of squaliform shark in the family Dalatiidae, and the type species in its genus. It is found sporadically around the world, usually close to the sea floor at depths of 200–600 m (660–1,970 ft). With a sizable oil-filled liver to maintain neutral buoyancy, this shark is able to cruise slowly through the water while expending little energy. The kitefin shark, the largest luminous vertebrate on record, has a slender body with a very short, blunt snout, large eyes, and thick lips. Its teeth are highly differentiated between the upper and lower jaws, with the upper teeth small and narrow and the lower teeth large, triangular, and serrated. Its typical length is 1.0–1.4 m (3.3–4.6 ft), though examples as long as 5.9 ft (180 cm) have been encountered.

Dalatias licha

CSIRO National Fish Collection · CC BY 3.0 · 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
Also called
kitefin sharkPBDB
Sits inside
DalatiasPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Squaliformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Squaliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Squaliformes

Time the record covers

At least 36 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.1 Mya to 3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 42.6 Mya to 2.4 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 31 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 31 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 20 of 31 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 31 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 31 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–10.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10.0–8.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.6–7.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.2–5.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.8–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–3.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.0–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences39.1 Mya3 Mya43.4 Mya1.6 Mya

31 occurrences of Dalatias licha on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

31 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

11 formations

Senhata — 35.16°N, 139.86°EWajimazaki — 37.40°N, 136.90°ESekinobana — 37.21°N, 136.69°EChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WUitpa — 12.03°N, 71.43°WOtekaike Limestone — 45.03°S, 170.99°EChagres — 9.27°N, 80.06°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°EKanzawa — 35.54°N, 139.32°EIseyama — 36.42°N, 138.30°EZushi — 35.29°N, 139.59°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dalatias licha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dalatias licha and its relatives

Miocene

Where Dalatias licha and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

178 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Dalatias licha, 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

13 references

Each of the 31 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. 1 further reference is 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 content2

Picture of Dalatias licha

Credit
CSIRO National Fish Collection
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itDalatias through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bonnaterre 1788)