A sawshark or saw shark is a member of a shark order bearing a unique long, saw-like rostrum edged with sharp teeth, which they use to slash and disable their prey. There are eight species within the Pristiophoriformes, including the longnose or common sawshark, shortnose sawshark, Japanese sawshark, Bahamas sawshark, sixgill sawshark, African dwarf sawshark, Lana's sawshark and the tropical sawshark.
Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes, known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively.
Elasmobranchii is a subclass of Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish, including modern sharks, rays, skates, and sawfish. Members of this subclass are characterised by having five to seven pairs of gill slits opening individually to the exterior, rigid dorsal fins and small placoid scales on the skin. The teeth are in several series; the upper jaw is not fused to the cranium, and the lower jaw is articulated with the upper. The details of this jaw anatomy vary between species, and help distinguish the different elasmobranch clades. The pelvic fins in males are modified to create claspers for the transfer of sperm. There is no swim bladder; instead, these fish maintain buoyancy with large livers rich in oil.
Caturus is an extinct genus of predatory marine fishes in the family Caturidae in the order Amiiformes, related to modern bowfin. It has been suggested that the genus is non-monophyletic with respect to other caturid genera.
Rajiformes is one of the four orders in the clade Batomorphi, often referred to as the superorder Batoidea, flattened cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. Rajiforms are distinguished by the presence of greatly enlarged pectoral fins, which reach as far forward as the sides of the head, with a generally flattened body. The undulatory pectoral fin motion diagnostic to this taxon is known as rajiform locomotion. The eyes and spiracles are located on the upper surface of the head and the gill slits are on the underside of the body. Most species give birth to live young, although some lay eggs enclosed in a horny capsule.
The Bahamas sawshark, Pristiophorus schroederi, is a sawshark of the family Pristiophoridae, found in the western Central Atlantic Ocean from the Bahamas and Cuba at depths of between 400 and 1,000 m. These sharks are at least 80 cm long.
Chondrosteus is a genus of extinct marine actinopterygian belonging to the family Chondrosteidae. It lived during the Hettangian and Sinemurian in what is now England. Chondrosteus is related to sturgeons and paddlefishes as part of the clade Acipenseriformes, and is one of the earliest known definitive members of the group. Similar to sturgeons, the jaws of Chondrosteus were free from the rest of the skull. Its scale cover was reduced to the upper lobe of the caudal fin like in paddlefish.
Dapedium is an extinct genus of primitive marine neopterygian ray-finned fish. The first-described finding was an example of D. politum, found in the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, on the Jurassic Coast of England. Dapedium lived in the Late Triassic to the Middle Jurassic period, from the late Norian to the early Aalenian.
Ischyodus is an extinct genus of chimaera. It is the most diverse and long-lived chimaera genus, with over 39 species found worldwide spanning over 140 million years from the Middle Jurassic to the Miocene. Complete specimens of I. quenstedti from the Late Jurassic of Germany most closely resemble the genus Callorhinchus amongst living chimaera genera. It is sometimes placed in the "Edaphodontidae", a unclearly defined group of chimaera with an uncertain position within the clade, while other authors place it into Callorhinchidae along with Callorhinchus.
Aspidorhynchus is an extinct genus of predatory ray-finned fish from the Middle Jurassic to the earliest Cretaceous. Fossils have been found in Europe, Antarctica and the Caribbean.
The longnose sawshark or common sawshark, is a sawshark of the family Pristiophoridae.
Diplurus is a genus of prehistoric mawsoniid coelacanth fish which lived during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic period in North America. The fossils of this genus are common on the eastern North American Margin, being a key taxon of the Newark Supergroup, and recovered from units such as the Bull Run Formation, Lockatong Formation, Stockton Formation, Solite Quarry, Midland Formation, East Berlin Formation, Boonton Formation and the Portland Formation. Three species are know, the type D. longicaudatus, the youngest and biggest, D. newarki, the oldest, followed then by "D. uddeni" (Eastman), also from older rocks and considered dubious. A recent work has recovered a 3rd or 4th species, D. enigmaticus, from the Late Triassic of New Jersey, representing another small-bodied form living in sympatry with the similarly sized D. newarki. This genus ranges in size from 15 cm of D. newarki and D. enigmaticus in New Jersey to the larger 60 cm specimens of Diplurus longicaudatus found in the Connecticut River Valley, which indicates a considerable growth and likely a change in the ecological position of the genus to a possible apex predatory niche.
Echinochimaera is an extinct genus of chimaeriform fish, known from the Lower Carboniferous Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana, United States. It is one of the earliest Chimaeriformes known.
Ornithoprion is a genus of extinct cartilaginous fish in the family Caseodontidae. The only species, O. hertwigi, lived during the Moscovian stage of the Pennsylvanian, between 315.2 to 307 million years ago, and is known from black shale deposits in what is now the Midwestern United States. The discovery and description of Ornithoprion, performed primarily via radiography, helped clarify the skull anatomy of eugeneodonts; a group which includes O. hertwigi and which were previously known primarily from isolated teeth. The genus name, which is derived from the ancient Greek órnith- meaning 'bird' and príōn meaning 'saw', was inspired by the animal's vaguely bird-like skull and the saw-like appearance of the lower teeth. The species name honors Oscar Hertwig.
Atlanticopristis is an extinct genus of sclerorhynchid that lived during the Middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of what is now the Northeast Region of Brazil, between 100.5 and 93.9 million years ago. Fourteen fossil teeth from Atlanticopristis were found in the Alcântara Formation, and referred to the closely related Onchopristis in 2007; a redescription in 2008 by Brazilian paleontologists Manuel Medeiros and Agostinha Pereira assigned it to a new genus containing one species, Atlanticopristis equatorialis.
The Moltrasio Formation also known as the Lombardische Kieselkalk Formation is a geological formation in Italy and Switzerland. This Formation mostly developed in the Lower or Middle Sinemurian stage of the Lower Jurassic, where on the Lombardian basin tectonic activity modified the current marine and terrestrial habitats. Here it developed a series of marine-related depositional settings, represented by an outcrop of 550–600 m of grey Calcarenites and Calcilutites with chert lenses and marly interbeds, that recovers the Sedrina, Moltrasio and Domaro Formations. This was mostly due to the post-Triassic crisis, that was linked locally to tectonics. The Moltrasio Formation is considered a continuation of the Sedrina Limestone and the Hettangian Albenza Formation, and was probably a shallow water succession, developed on the passive margin of the westernmost Southern Alps. It is known due to the exquisite preservation observed on the Outcrop in Osteno, where several kinds of marine biota have been recovered.
Antliodus is an extinct genus of petalodont from the Carboniferous Period. It is known from the Mississippian of the United States, Britain, and Belgium Though many species have been reported in the past, a lack of recent revisions means some may be dubious.
Ctenacanthiformes is an extinct order of cartilaginous fish. They possessed ornamented fin spines at the front of their dorsal fins and cladodont-type dentition, that is typically of a grasping morphology, though some taxa developed cutting and gouging tooth morphologies. Some ctenacanths are thought to have reached sizes comparable to the great white shark, with body lengths of up to 7 metres (23 ft) and weights of 1,500–2,500 kilograms (3,300–5,500 lb), while others reached lengths of only 30 centimetres (12 in). The earliest ctenacanths appeared during the Frasnian stage of the Late Devonian, with the group reaching their greatest diversity during the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian), and continued to exist into at least the Middle Permian (Guadalupian). Some authors have suggested members of the family Ctenacanthidae may have survived into the Cretaceous based on teeth found in deep water deposits of Valanginian age in France and Austria, however, other authors contend that the similarity of these teeth to Paleozoic ctenacanths is only superficial, and they likely belong to neoselachians instead.
Dracopristis is an extinct genus of ctenacanth that lived during the Carboniferous period in North America, around 307 million years ago. The species was discovered in the Kinney Brick Quarry in New Mexico, US. Like many fossils from the site, the fossils of Dracopristis are very well-preserved. A single species is known, Dracopristis hoffmanorum, which is named in honor of Ralph and Jeanette Hoffman, the owners of the quarry. Prior to being scientific named, D. hoffmanorum was informally referred to as the "Godzilla shark".
Protochimaera is an extinct genus of chimaeriform fish from the Mississippian of central Russia. It is the oldest known representative of the order Chimaeriformes, approximately 10 million years older than Echinochimaera, and far older than the Mesozoic radiation which would lead to modern chimaeriforms, commonly known as chimaeras, rat fish, or ghost sharks.
