Galeorhinus galeus

The school shark is a houndshark of the family Triakidae, and the only living member of the genus Galeorhinus. Common names also include tope, tope shark, snapper shark, and soupfin shark. It is found worldwide in temperate seas at depths down to about 800 m (2,600 ft). It can grow to nearly 2 m long. It feeds both in midwater and near the seabed, and its reproduction is ovoviviparous. This shark is caught in fisheries for its flesh, its fins, and its liver, which has a very high vitamin A content. The IUCN has classified this species as critically endangered in its Red List of Threatened Species.

Galeorhinus galeus

D Ross Robertson · 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
Also called
tope sharkPBDB
Sits inside
GaleorhinusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 22 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 7 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 22 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.6–1.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences33.9 Mya11.7 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Galeorhinus galeus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

22 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

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.64°N, 117.88°WBahía Inglesa — 27.13°S, 70.83°WBahía Inglesa — 26.22°S, 70.72°WTrent — 35.07°N, 77.15°WJacksonian — 32.74°N, 83.50°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WSables des Landes — 43.94°N, 0.75°WCantaure — 11.94°N, 70.02°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WHorcón — 32.70°S, 71.46°WKattendijk — 51.26°N, 4.27°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Galeorhinus galeus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Galeorhinus galeus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Galeorhinus galeus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

725 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Galeorhinus galeus, 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

18 references

Each of the 22 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. 6 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 Galeorhinus galeus

Credit
D Ross Robertson
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Galeorhinus galeus 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 itGaleorhinus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)