Diplacanthus

Diplacanthus is an extinct genus of Mid to Late Devonian fish in the class Acanthodii, known as spiny sharks. Diplacanthus can be translated to ‘’double spine’’, in reference to the two dorsal fin spines of the fish.

Diplacanthus

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
DiplacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acanthodii
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Acanthodii
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acanthodii

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 410.62 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Devonian — about 31 of 31 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 31 occurrences412–410 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences410–408 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences408–406 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences406–404 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences404–403 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences403–401 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences401–399 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences399–397 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences396–394 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences394–392 Mya — about 4 occurrences392–390 Mya — about 5 occurrences390–388 Mya — about 5 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 6 occurrences387–385 Mya — about 3 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 1 occurrence383–381 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences381–379 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences379–378 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences378–376 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences376–374 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences374–372 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences372–370 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences370–369 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences369–367 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences367–365 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences365–363 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences363–361 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences361–360 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences360–358 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393.47 Mya372.15 Mya412 Mya358 Mya

31 occurrences of Diplacanthus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

9 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 4.03°WBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EPolotsk — 52.14°N, 27.28°EPolotsk — 51.88°N, 26.85°EPolotsk — 52.88°N, 26.86°EEscuminac — 48.11°N, 66.40°WAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°ELepel — 53.32°N, 30.37°EWitpoort — 33.32°S, 26.54°ERēzekne — 56.51°N, 27.33°EUpper Stromness Flagstones — 59.08°N, 3.32°W

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The named rock units Diplacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diplacanthus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Diplacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

231 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Diplacanthus, 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

11 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. 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 Diplacanthus

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDiplacanthidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1843