| Janassa Temporal range: Lower Carboniferous to Permian |
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|---|---|
| Janassa bituminosa & Menaspis armatus | |
| Conservation status | |
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Fossil
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Order: | Petalodontiformes |
| Family: | Janassidae Jaekel, 1899 |
| Species | |
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Janassa is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish that lived in marine environments in what is now central United States of America and Europe during the Carboniferous and Permian. It is known from teeth, and a lot good preserved whole fossils from Germany (Kupferschiefer, Upper Permian) and England (Marl Slate, Upper Permian). According to the fossils, Janassa had a body plan very similar to that of the modern skate. However, Janassa was a Petalodont, a kind of ancient cartilaginous fish related to chimaeras. Its teeth suggest it crushed and ate shellfish, such as brachiopods.