Symmoriiformes

Symmoriiformes is an extinct order of cartilaginous fish. Originally named Symmoriida by Zangerl (1981), the name has since been corrected to Symmoriiformes to avoid confusion with a family. The symmoriiform fossils record begins during the late Devonian, and most had become extinct by the start of the Permian, with the genus Dwykaselachus from the Artinskian-Kungurian of South Africa being the latest known uncontroversial occurrence. Teeth described from the Valanginian of France and Austria indicate that members of the family Falcatidae might have survived until the Early Cretaceous; however, it has since been proposed that these teeth more likely belonged to neoselachian sharks.

Symmoriiformes

Uncredited · 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
CladoselachimorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 349 million years on record.

The record covers at least 372.15 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 382.31 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Devonian — about 12 of 217 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 83 of 217 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 116 of 217 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 217 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 217 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 217 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 217 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 217 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 217 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 217 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 217 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 217 occurrences390–377 Mya — about 2 occurrences377–364 Mya — about 8 occurrences364–351 Mya — about 6 occurrences351–338 Mya — about 5 occurrences338–325 Mya — about 17 occurrences325–312 Mya — about 20 occurrences312–299 Mya — about 37 occurrences299–286 Mya — about 18 occurrences286–273 Mya — about 14 occurrences273–260 Mya — about 82 occurrences260–247 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences143–130 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences372.15 Mya23.04 Mya390 Mya0 Mya

217 occurrences of Symmoriiformes on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

217 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

46 formations

Bell Canyon — 31.31°N, 104.54°WBell Canyon — 31.30°N, 104.56°WBell Canyon — 31.93°N, 104.73°WBell Canyon — 31.79°N, 104.88°WKhuff — 20.86°N, 57.60°EKhuff — 21.01°N, 57.67°ECutoff — 31.82°N, 104.83°WCutoff — 31.88°N, 104.88°WHeath — 46.95°N, 108.96°WHeath — 46.96°N, 108.89°WHeath — 46.97°N, 109.04°WLinton — 39.72°N, 87.32°WLinton — 39.79°N, 87.38°WLinton — 39.46°N, 87.19°WLinton — 40.94°N, 90.27°WCherry Canyon — 31.87°N, 104.84°WCarbondale — 38.28°N, 87.17°WStaunton — 39.85°N, 87.30°WStaunton — 39.70°N, 87.30°WOhio shale — 41.47°N, 81.78°WOhio shale — 41.45°N, 81.83°WOhio shale — 41.38°N, 81.50°WOnaga — 40.48°N, 95.73°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WBrushy Canyon — 31.84°N, 104.86°WExcello Shale — 38.28°N, 87.18°WJingyuan — 36.56°N, 104.68°EFayetteville — 35.84°N, 92.57°WFayetteville — 35.87°N, 93.96°WFayetteville — 36.00°N, 94.00°WLimestone Coal — 55.92°N, 4.33°WCutoff / Brushy Canyon — 31.83°N, 104.86°WCulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°WAkasaka — 35.40°N, 136.58°EAltamont Limestone — 37.04°N, 95.53°WAltamont Limestone — 41.80°N, 96.15°WCherryvale shale — 39.07°N, 94.64°WForaker — 39.83°N, 95.37°WKazarka — 71.45°N, 53.04°EManse Burn — 55.92°N, 4.33°WManse Burn — 55.80°N, 4.18°W

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The named rock units Symmoriiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Symmoriiformes and its relatives

Permian

Where Symmoriiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

543 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 162 sites for Symmoriiformes, 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

56 references

Each of the 217 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. 44 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 Symmoriiformes

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Symmoriiformes 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 itCladoselachimorpha through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zangerl 1981