Helicampodus
Helicampodus is an extinct genus of shark-like eugeneodont fish that lived during the Late Permian to Early Triassic period. Fossils of Helicampodus have been found in Asia. The largest teeth of Helicampodus kokeni are about 2.7 cm in length, which points to a maximum size of around 2 m based on its relatives. It was earlier placed in the families Helicoprionidae and Edestidae, but has more recently been placed in Helicampodontidae.

Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale Peabody Museum · CC0 · 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
- HelicampodontidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes
Time the record covers
At least 2.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 254.14 Mya to 251.902 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 259.857 Mya to 251.1 Mya.
6 occurrences of Helicampodus 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
6 occurrences- Permian67%
- Early Triassic33%
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
4 formations
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The named rock units Helicampodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Helicampodus and its relatives
PermianWhere Helicampodus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.
Found in the same rock
35 taxa- Acratinella obscura1 site
- Bairdia anbeedei1 site
- Bairdia armenica1 site
- Bairdia intermedia1 site
- Bairdia subhassi1 site
- Claraia dieneri1 site
- Claraia griesbachi1 site
- Clarkina1 site
- Cryptophyllum leptoconicum1 site
- Etheripecten1 site
- Etheripecten haydeni1 site
- Eumorphotis venetiana1 site
- Fabalicypris obunca1 site
- Fabalicypris subgeinitziana1 site
- Glyptophiceras1 site
- Glyptophiceras himalayanum1 site
- Healdianella doraschamensis1 site
- Healdianella splendida1 site
- Hindeodus parvus1 site
- Hindeodus typicalis1 site
- Lamnimargus himalayensis1 site
- Ophiceras medium1 site
- Orthotichia parva1 site
- Otoceras woodwardi1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Helicampodus, 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
5 references- A labyrinthodont from the lower Gondwana of Kashmir and a new edestid from the Permian of the Salt range2
- Mesozoic fish faunas of China1
- The Guryul Ravine section, candidate of the global stratotype section and point of the Permo-Triassic boundary1
- Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic fish faunas of the Japanese Islands1
- The Development and Change of Marine Organisms at the Palaeozoic-Mesozoic Boundary1
Each of the 6 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 Helicampodus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale Peabody Museum
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Helicampodus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itHelicampodontidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Branson 1935