Gansuselache

Gansuselache is a genus of extinct elasmobranch in the order Hybodontiformes, comprising one species, Gansuselache tungshengi (monotypy) from Gansu Province, China. It is known from Fangshankou Formation, which previously interpreted as Permian in age, but reinterpreted as the Early Triassic in later study. A tooth remain tentatively assigned to this genus is also known from Late Permian strata of Poland.

Gansuselache

Jonathan Chen · CC BY 4.0 · 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
LonchidiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 2 of 2 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

2 occurrences of Gansuselache on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

2 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

2 formations

Fangshankou — 41.55°N, 97.17°EWerra — 51.09°N, 15.88°E

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The named rock units Gansuselache has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Gansuselache and its relatives

Permian

Where Gansuselache and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

2 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Gansuselache, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Gansuselache

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
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 itLonchidiidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wang et al. 2009