Leptostyrax

Leptostyrax is an extinct genus of mackerel sharks that lived during the Cretaceous. It contains two valid species, L. macrorhiza and L. stychi, found in North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. It is among the earliest known lamniforms which underwent an adaptive radiation in the Early Cretaceous.

Leptostyrax

Joseph Frederickson · 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
EoptolamnidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 73 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 28 of 49 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 20 of 49 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 49 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 49 occurrencesEocene128–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 2 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 2 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 4 occurrences109–106 Mya — about 6 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 6 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 6 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 4 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 4 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 3 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 2 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.4 Mya48.07 Mya128 Mya36 Mya

49 occurrences of Leptostyrax on record, most of them in the Early 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

49 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

24 formations

Labguva — 55.09°N, 22.90°ELabguva — 54.92°N, 23.85°EPaluxy — 32.00°N, 98.25°WPaluxy — 32.22°N, 98.20°WJiesia — 55.06°N, 24.37°EMancos Shale — 39.00°N, 110.35°WMancos Shale — 35.33°N, 105.90°WHiraiga — 39.94°N, 141.94°EHunstanton — 54.15°N, 0.17°WBrasta — 55.09°N, 22.90°EBrasta — 54.92°N, 23.85°EAntlers — 33.28°N, 97.62°WGlen Rose Limestone — 32.37°N, 97.69°WPawpaw — 32.73°N, 97.32°WGearle Siltstone — 23.11°S, 114.18°ECarlile Shale — 39.08°N, 99.24°WMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°EPaw Paw — 33.03°N, 97.22°WLyaminsk — 56.14°N, 37.38°EBurgsteinfurt — 52.19°S, 7.17°EHabur — 26.90°N, 70.60°EWoburn Sands — 52.03°N, 0.40°WSandgate — 51.24°N, 0.15°WVaals Greensand — 51.74°N, 6.09°EGlauconie de Lonzée — 50.55°N, 4.73°EDakota Sandstone — 35.85°N, 109.83°WTres Hermanos — 34.31°N, 106.74°WWulagen — 39.69°N, 75.27°E

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The named rock units Leptostyrax has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Leptostyrax and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Leptostyrax and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

332 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 49 sites for Leptostyrax, 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

27 references

Each of the 49 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. 15 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 Leptostyrax

Credit
Joseph Frederickson
Licence
CC0
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 itEoptolamnidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Williston 1900