Isurolamna
Isurolamna is an extinct genus of mackerel shark from the Paleogene period. It contains at least three species and a fourth is sometimes placed in it. It is thought to be closely related to Macrorhizodus, Isurus, and Carcharodon. Isurolamna arose in the Paleocene epoch during the Selandian age, and was extinct by the close of the Rupelian age of the Oligocene epoch. Some features which define this genus include a small, elliptical foramen (hole) in the middle of the lingual side of the root, triangular cusps except on lower interior teeth, and a relatively thick root with nearly vertical margins. The genus has a complicated taxonomic past.

Mason Hintermeister · CC BY-SA 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
- LamnidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes
Time the record covers
At least 41 million years on record.
The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 15.98 Mya.
77 occurrences of Isurolamna on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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
77 occurrencesThese 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
37 formations
- Marnes de Miretrain Formation6
- London Clay Formation4
- Selsey Formation · Bracklesham Group4
- Sables de Bracheux Formation4
- Osinovaya Formation3
- Tuffeau de St-Omer Formation3
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The named rock units Isurolamna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Isurolamna and its relatives
EoceneWhere Isurolamna and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.
Found in the same rock
1,017 taxa- Odontaspis winkleri30 sites
- Squatina prima28 sites
- Striatolamia macrota24 sites
- Hypotodus verticalis23 sites
- Physogaleus secundus23 sites
- Premontreia (Oxyscyllium) gilberti20 sites
- Carcharias19 sites
- Heterodontus vincenti19 sites
- Dasyatis18 sites
- Pachygaleus lefevrei18 sites
- Myliobatis17 sites
- Scyliorhinus17 sites
- Abdounia minutissima16 sites
- Burnhamia16 sites
- Isistius trituratus15 sites
- Jaekelotodus robustus15 sites
- Otodus auriculatus15 sites
- Aetomylaeus dixoni14 sites
- Palaeohypotodus rutoti14 sites
- Squalus minor14 sites
- Anomotodon novus13 sites
- Brachycarcharias lerichei13 sites
- Jaekelotodus trigonalis13 sites
- Abdounia12 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 73 sites for Isurolamna, 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
41 references- Nouvelle faunes de sélaciens (Elasmobranchii, Neoselachii) de l'Eocène moyen des Landes (Sud-Ouest, France). Implication dans la connaissance des communautés de sélaciens d'eau profondes8
- Fossiles de Belgique. Dents de Requins et de Raies du Tertiare de la Belgique6
- The Selsey Division (Bracklesham Group) at Lee-on-the-Solent, Gosport, (Hants)5
- Contribution à l'étude des élasmobranches du Thanétien (Paléocène) du Bassin de Paris. 1. Découverte d'une faune d'elasmobranches dans la partie supérieure des Sables de Bracheux (Thanétien, Paléocène du Bassin de Paris) des régions de Compiègne (Oise) et de Montdidier (Somme)4
- Chondrichthyan fishes from the Middle Eocene Osinovaya Formation of Rostov Region, Russia3
- The Turanian Basin in the Eocene: the new data on the fossil sharks and rays from the Kyzylkum Desert (Uzbekistan)3
- Les élasmobranches du Thanétien (Paléocène) du Nord de la France, des carrières de Templeuve et de Leforest3
- Lithostratigraphical and biostratigraphical subdivision of Tertiary deposits (Oligocene-Pliocene) in the Winterswijk-Almelo region (eastern part of the Netherlands)3
- Records of elasmobranchian teeth in the Bartonian of the northern Caucasus (Russia) and Crimea (Ukraine)2
- Quantitative analysis of elasmobranch assemblages from two successive Ypresian (early Eocene) facies at Marke, western Belgium2
- Verbreitung und Zusammensetzung der Elasmobranchierfauna im Kasseler Meeressand (Ober-Oligozän, Chattium, Kassel-Formation) Nordhessens, insbesondere im Ahnetal bei Kassel (GK 15, BI. 4611 Kassel West)2
- Structure and ichthyofauna of the upper part of Eocene sediments in Belogorsk area (Crimea)2
Each of the 77 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. 29 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 Isurolamna
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Mason Hintermeister
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Isurolamna 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Isurolamna”
- 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 itLamnidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cappetta 1976