Pucapristis branisi

Pucapristis is a prehistoric genus of sclerorhynchoid ray whose fossils first appear in the fossil record in rocks dating from the Maastrichtian stage. The genus was described in 1963 by Schaeffer. Fossils of Pucapristis have not been found in any subsequent strata. Incidentally, the Maastrichtian is the final portion of the Cretaceous Period and its endpoint marks the advent of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. This major geological transition is famous for being the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Pucapristis branisi

Afrovenator · 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
PucapristisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 6.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 72.2 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 5 of 5 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 5 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72.7 Mya65.5 Mya

5 occurrences of Pucapristis branisi 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

5 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

2 formations

El Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WEl Molino — 18.14°S, 65.76°WYacoraite — 24.30°S, 65.27°W

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The named rock units Pucapristis branisi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pucapristis branisi and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Pucapristis branisi and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Pucapristis branisi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

4 references

Each of the 5 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. 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 Pucapristis branisi

Credit
Afrovenator
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pucapristis branisi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPucapristis through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schaeffer 1963