Ptychodus mortoni

Ptychodus is a genus of extinct durophagous (shell-crushing) lamniform sharks from the Cretaceous period, spanning from the Cenomanian to the Campanian. Fossils of Ptychodus teeth are found in many Late Cretaceous marine sediments worldwide.

Ptychodus mortoni

Romain Vullo, Eduardo Villalobos-Segura, Manuel Amadori, Jürgen Kriwet, Eberhard Frey, Margarito A. González González… · 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
PtychodusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 23 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 23 of 23 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 23 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 1 occurrence93–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 2 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 2 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 3 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89.8 Mya72.2 Mya101.2 Mya65.3 Mya

23 occurrences of Ptychodus mortoni 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

23 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

14 formations

Eutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 39.78°N, 98.10°WNiobrara — 39.12°N, 99.30°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WPoint Lookout — 35.20°N, 107.05°WPrairie Bluff — 32.13°N, 87.40°WMooreville Chalk — 32.35°N, 86.34°WEagle Ford — 30.26°N, 97.76°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WItombe — 8.29°S, 13.35°EGlauconie de Lonzée — 50.55°N, 4.73°EKarababa — 37.45°N, 40.37°EAgua Nueva — 26.75°N, 100.05°WLa Luna — 9.80°N, 72.85°WMexcala — 18.16°N, 98.94°WCrevasse Canyon — 35.20°N, 107.05°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ptychodus mortoni has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ptychodus mortoni and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Ptychodus mortoni and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

321 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Ptychodus mortoni, 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

22 references

Each of the 23 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. 10 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 Ptychodus mortoni

Credit
Romain Vullo, Eduardo Villalobos-Segura, Manuel Amadori, Jürgen Kriwet, Eberhard Frey, Margarito A. González González…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
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 itPtychodus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Mantell 1836)