Hybodontiformes

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Hybodontiformes
Temporal range: Carboniferous–Cretaceous
Ptychodus mortoni, a giant 7 m long durophagous Late Cretaceous shark
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Infraclass: Euselachii
Order: †Hybodontiformes
Owen, 1846
Families

The hybodonts are an extinct group of sharks and are the sister taxa to the Neoselachii (all modern sharks, skates and rays).[2] They were very successful in their own right and existed as a group for more than 200 million years. Their fossil record extends from the early Carboniferous to the Late Cretaceous. The hybodonts dominated the shark faunas of the Early Mesozoic and unlike modern sharks were abundant in both freshwater and marine habitats. The group went into decline in the second half of the era and are thought to have become extinct at the end of the Maastrichtian, alongside the dinosaurs.[3] Lonchidion selachos was one of the last hybodonts— its distinctive serrated fine spines occur in freshwater deposits from Wyoming alongside the fossils of the last dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops.

Radiation of cartilaginous fishes, including the Hybodontiformes. Derived from work by Michael Benton, 2005.[1]
Hybodus fraasi

References

  1. ↑ Benton, M. J. (2005) Vertebrate Palaeontology, Blackwell, 3rd edition, Fig 7.13 on page 185.
  2. ↑ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12549-010-0032-2?LI=true
  3. ↑ http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044632

External links


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