Zameus squamulosus

The velvet dogfish, the only member of the genus Zameus, is a small sleeper shark of the family Somniosidae, found around the world between latitudes 64°N and 48°S, from the surface to 2,000 m.

Zameus squamulosus

NOAA Observer Program · 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
velvet dogfishPBDB
Sits inside
ZameusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Squaliformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Squaliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Squaliformes

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesPliocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.8–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15.98 Mya5.333 Mya23.5 Mya3.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Zameus squamulosus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

2 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

Argille Azzurre — 44.72°N, 10.08°ESign — 18.48°N, 77.58°W

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

Zameus squamulosus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Zameus squamulosus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

42 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Zameus squamulosus, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Zameus squamulosus

Credit
NOAA Observer Program
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zameus squamulosus 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 itZameus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Günther 1877)