Pristiophorus

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Pristiophorus
Temporal range: 86.3–Recent  Ma
Pristiophorus japonicus ioworld.jpg
Japanese sawshark, (P. japonicus)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Division: Selachii
Order: Pristiophoriformes
Family: Pristiophoridae
Genus: Pristiophorus
J. P. Müller & Henle, 1837
Type species
Pristis cirratus
Latham, 1794

Pristiophorus is a genus of sawsharks found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Members of this genus differ from sixgill sawsharks of the genus Pliotrema in having five gill slits. Their rostral sawteeth lack prominent transverse ridges on the basal ledges, and the large teeth are not posteriorly serrated. [1]

Contents

Taxonomy

The genus name Pristiophorus comes from Ancient Greek pristēs, meaning "saw", and -phóros, meaning "bearing".

Species

There are currently seven recognized species in this genus: [2] [3]

Fossil species
Illustration of the fossil species Pristiophorus humboldti Tiburon sierra (jpg).jpg
Illustration of the fossil species Pristiophorus humboldti
Fossil specimen of Pristiophorus tumidens (sometimes placed in the genus Propristiophorus) Pristiophorus tumidens Sahel Alma Santonian.jpg
Fossil specimen of Pristiophorus tumidens (sometimes placed in the genus Propristiophorus )

Based on the Shark-References database: [5]

However, Villafaña et al. (2025) noted that the smooth rostral spines used to identify fossil Pristiophorus species may not necessarily be diagnostic to just Pristiophorus, at least in South American fossil localities on the Pacific coast. [12] The most effective way to diagnose a fossil sawshark species to Pristiophorus, and as its own species, is via the rarely-preserved oral teeth, which tend to not be associated with the rostral spines. [13]

References

  1. Compagno, Leonard J.V. (1984). Sharks of the World: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Shark Species Known to Date. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. ISBN   92-5-101384-5.
  2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Pristiophorus". FishBase . October 2013 version.
  3. 1 2 Ebert, D.A.; Wilms, H.A. (2013). "Pristiophorus lanae sp. nov., a new sawshark species from the Western North Pacific, with comments on the genus Pristiophorus Müller & Henle, 1837 (Chondrichthyes: Pristiophoridae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3752 (1): 86–100. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3752.1.7. PMID   25229110.
  4. Ebert, D.A.; Cailliet, G.M. (2011). "Pristiophorus nancyae, a New Species of Sawshark (Chondrichthyes: Pristiophoridae) from Southern Africa". Bulletin of Marine Science. 87 (3): 501–512. Bibcode:2011BuMS...87..501E. doi:10.5343/bms.2010.1108.
  5. "Extinct - valid species | Species | Shark-References". shark-references.com. Retrieved 2025-11-23.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Thomas Reinecke; Jürgen Pollerspöck; Hiroyuki Motomura; Helmut Bracher; Leo Dufraing; Thomas Güthner; Fritz von der Hocht (2020). "Sawsharks (Pristiophoriformes, Pristiophoridae) in the Oligocene and Neogene of Europe and their relationships with extant species based on teeth and rostral denticles". Palaeontos. 33.
  7. Villafaña, Jaime A.; Nielsen, Sven N.; Klug, Stefanie; Kriwet, Jürgen (2019-12-01). "Early Miocene cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes: Holocephali, Elasmobranchii) from Chile: Diversity and paleobiogeographic implications" . Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 96 102317. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2019.102317. ISSN   0895-9811.
  8. 1 2 Engelbrecht, Andrea; Mörs, Thomas; Reguero, Marcelo A.; Kriwet, Jürgen (2017-08-18). "A new sawshark, Pristiophorus laevis, from the Eocene of Antarctica with comments on Pristiophorus lanceolatus". Historical Biology. 29 (6): 841–853. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1252761. ISSN   0891-2963. PMC   5447807 . PMID   28579693.
  9. Keyes, I. W. (1982). "The Cenozoic sawshark Pristiophorus lanceolatus (Davis) (Order Selachii) of New Zealand and Australia, with a review of the phylogeny and distribution of world fossil and extant Pristiophoridae". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 25 (4): 459–474. doi:10.1080/00288306.1982.10421510. ISSN   0028-8306.
  10. 1 2 Cappetta, Henri; Morrison, Kurt; Adnet, Sylvain (2021-08-03). "A shark fauna from the Campanian of Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada: an insight into the diversity of Cretaceous deep-water assemblages". Historical Biology. 33 (8): 1121–1182. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1681421. ISSN   0891-2963.
  11. Underwood, Charlie; Schlogl, Jan (2011). "Deep water chondrichthyans from the Early Miocene of the Vienna Basin (Central Paratethys, Slovakia)". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.2011.0101. ISSN   0567-7920.
  12. Villafaña, Jaime A.; Campos-Medina, Jorge; Chávez-Hoffmeister, Martín F.; Araya, Selene; Araya, Benjamin; Ledezma, Leandro; Hernandez, Yusse; Ramos-Rojas, Héctor A.; Bolomey, Jorge; Tejo, Matias; Vera, Francisca; Campoy, Ana N.; Arotaipe, Rosmery; Bugueño, Yara; Antiquera, Bianca (2025). "Diving into the past: a new assemblage of Neogene elasmobranch microfossils from the eastern Pacific of South America". Papers in Palaeontology. 11 (6): e70043. doi:10.1002/spp2.70043. ISSN   2056-2802.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  13. Engelbrecht, Andrea; Mörs, Thomas; Reguero, Marcelo A.; Kriwet, Jürgen (2017-08-18). "A new sawshark, Pristiophorus laevis, from the Eocene of Antarctica with comments on Pristiophorus lanceolatus". Historical Biology. 29 (6): 841–853. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1252761. ISSN   0891-2963. PMC   5447807 . PMID   28579693.