Odontaspis

Odontaspis and Greek: ἀσπίς aspís 'shield') is a genus of sand shark with two extant species.

Odontaspis

Dr. Ken Sulak, U.S. Geological Survey · Public Domain · 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
Also called
sand tiger sharkPBDB
Sits inside
OdontaspididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 132 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 300 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 9 of 300 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 66 of 300 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 50 of 300 occurrencesEocene — about 99 of 300 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 21 of 300 occurrencesMiocene — about 48 of 300 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 300 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 300 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 1 occurrence131–127 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 2 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 3 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 1 occurrence107–102 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 1 occurrence97–92 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–88 Mya — about 3 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 17 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 17 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 14 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 12 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 29 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 26 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 23 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 23 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 23 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 18 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 6 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 11 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 12 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 13 occurrences15–9.7 Mya — about 15 occurrences9.7–4.9 Mya — about 12 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences132.6 Mya129 ka146 Mya0 Mya

300 occurrences of Odontaspis on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

300 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

132 formations

Landana — 5.22°S, 12.14°EMesaverde — 44.08°N, 107.74°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.75°WMesaverde — 44.17°N, 107.81°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.13°ELondon Clay — 51.83°N, 1.25°ELondon Clay — 51.53°N, 0.70°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 50.88°N, 1.30°WLondon Clay — 50.80°N, 1.67°WLondon Clay — 51.07°N, 1.74°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 — 47.74°N, 108.96°WNavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 40.35°N, 74.17°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WWaipara Greensand — 43.05°S, 172.62°EWaipara Greensand — 43.12°S, 172.48°ETuscahoma — 32.35°N, 88.68°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.38°N, 76.99°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.67°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WJan Juc — 38.33°S, 144.30°EJan Juc — 38.20°S, 144.27°ETallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WTallahatta — 31.32°N, 85.72°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 44.52°N, 102.39°WOsinovaya — 48.38°N, 41.93°EOsinovaya — 48.40°N, 41.76°EOsinovaya — 48.46°N, 41.83°EBrussel Sand — 50.87°N, 4.38°EBrussel Sand — 50.85°N, 4.43°EBearpaw — 51.27°N, 112.33°WTavda — 55.34°N, 65.35°ETavda — 56.70°N, 63.15°ETuffeau de St-Omer — 50.53°N, 3.15°ETuffeau de St-Omer — 50.44°N, 3.07°EStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°EGram — 55.28°N, 9.00°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Odontaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 108 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 55 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Odontaspis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Odontaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,352 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 276 sites for Odontaspis, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

157 references

Each of the 300 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. 145 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 Odontaspis

Credit
Dr. Ken Sulak, U.S. Geological Survey
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Odontaspis noronhai · TCWC:Ichthyology:3922.01

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 itOdontaspididae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Agassiz 1838)