Hybodontidae

Hybodontiformes, commonly called hybodonts, are an extinct group of shark-like cartilaginous fish (chondrichthyans) which existed from the late Devonian to the Late Cretaceous. Hybodonts share a close common ancestry with modern sharks and rays (Neoselachii) as part of the clade Euselachii. They are distinguished from other chondrichthyans by their distinctive fin spines and cephalic spines present on the heads of males. An ecologically diverse group, they were abundant in marine and freshwater environments during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, but were rare in open marine environments by the end of the Jurassic, having been largely replaced by modern sharks, though they were still common in freshwater and marginal marine habitats. They survived until the end of the Cretaceous, before going extinct.

Hybodontidae

Sebastian Stumpf Faviel A. López‐Romero René Kindlimann Frederic Lacombat Burkhard Pohl Jürgen Kriwet · 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
HybodontiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 356 million years on record.

The record covers at least 372.15 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 382.31 Mya to 13.82 Mya.

Devonian — about 3 of 671 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 3 of 671 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 16 of 671 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 24 of 671 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 60 of 671 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 61 of 671 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 65 of 671 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 24 of 671 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 36 of 671 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 173 of 671 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 205 of 671 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 671 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 671 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 671 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 671 occurrences390–377 Mya — about 2 occurrences377–364 Mya — about 1 occurrence364–351 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences351–339 Mya — about 1 occurrence339–326 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences326–313 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences313–300 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences300–287 Mya — about 6 occurrences287–275 Mya — about 4 occurrences275–262 Mya — about 2 occurrences262–249 Mya — about 13 occurrences249–236 Mya — about 76 occurrences236–224 Mya — about 12 occurrences224–211 Mya — about 7 occurrences211–198 Mya — about 49 occurrences198–185 Mya — about 25 occurrences185–173 Mya — about 33 occurrences173–160 Mya — about 24 occurrences160–147 Mya — about 21 occurrences147–134 Mya — about 69 occurrences134–121 Mya — about 42 occurrences121–109 Mya — about 54 occurrences109–96 Mya — about 62 occurrences96–83 Mya — about 55 occurrences83–70 Mya — about 104 occurrences70–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–6.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence372.15 Mya15.98 Mya390 Mya6 Mya

671 occurrences of Hybodontidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

671 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

211 formations

Durlston — 50.60°N, 1.95°WDurlston — 50.62°N, 2.25°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WMesaverde — 44.08°N, 107.74°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.75°WMesaverde — 44.17°N, 107.81°WCañete — 39.61°N, 0.77°WCañete — 39.87°N, 1.48°WCañete — 39.91°N, 1.37°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 48.03°N, 109.01°WJudith River — 47.79°N, 108.94°WJudith River — 48.01°N, 108.91°WJudith River — 48.58°N, 109.22°WJudith River — 48.53°N, 109.67°WJudith River — 47.87°N, 109.15°WJudith River — 47.74°N, 108.96°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WSao Khua — 16.70°N, 102.25°ESao Khua — 16.89°N, 104.08°ESao Khua — 11.56°N, 102.59°ESao Khua — 17.10°N, 102.49°ESao Khua — 16.86°N, 104.48°ESao Khua — 17.07°N, 104.16°ESao Khua — 16.90°N, 102.65°EBahariya — 28.37°N, 28.90°EBahariya — 28.45°N, 29.04°EAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.24°N, 103.61°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.46°N, 103.56°WWadhurst Clay — 50.94°N, 0.61°EWadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°EWadhurst Clay — 50.89°N, 0.69°EWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.44°EWestbury — 51.32°N, 2.97°WWestbury — 51.93°N, 2.23°WWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 50.72°N, 3.05°WWestbury — 51.55°N, 2.40°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WDouiret — 32.48°N, 10.48°EDouiret — 32.69°N, 10.26°EDouiret — 32.17°N, 10.40°EDouiret — 32.87°N, 10.38°EDouiret — 33.11°N, 10.33°EKhok Kruat — 15.23°N, 104.86°EKhok Kruat — 14.87°N, 102.73°EKhok Kruat — 16.54°N, 102.85°EKhok Kruat — 16.60°N, 103.52°EKhok Kruat — 15.76°N, 101.77°ENavesink — 40.35°N, 74.17°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WAïn el Guettar — 32.66°N, 10.21°EAïn el Guettar — 33.18°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EAntlers — 33.28°N, 97.62°WAntlers — 33.50°N, 97.58°WAntlers — 34.15°N, 95.82°WAntlers — 34.40°N, 96.10°WLulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°WLulworth — 50.60°N, 1.95°WMasuk — 38.08°N, 111.00°WMasuk — 38.05°N, 110.93°WPaluxy — 32.22°N, 98.20°WPaluxy — 33.08°N, 97.64°WPaluxy — 33.15°N, 97.57°WPaluxy — 31.87°N, 98.86°WEutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 32.35°N, 86.35°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WExter — 48.56°N, 9.07°EExter — 48.55°N, 9.07°EExter — 52.56°N, 9.04°ECedar Mountain — 39.05°N, 111.04°WCedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.57°WCedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.27°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WMoenkopi — 34.92°N, 110.26°WMoenkopi — 35.08°N, 110.84°WMoenkopi — 34.90°N, 110.15°W

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The named rock units Hybodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 187 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 158 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hybodontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Hybodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,820 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 544 sites for Hybodontidae, and this reads 240 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

342 references

Each of the 671 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. 330 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 content3

Picture of Hybodontidae

Credit
Sebastian Stumpf Faviel A. López‐Romero René Kindlimann Frederic Lacombat Burkhard Pohl Jürgen Kriwet
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Hybodontidae indet. · pefo:53779

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itHybodontiformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1834