Rolfodon

Rolfodon
Temporal range: Campanian–Late Miocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Subdivision: Selachimorpha
Order: Hexanchiformes
Family: Chlamydoselachidae
Genus: Rolfodon
Cappetta, Morrison & Adnet, 2019
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Thrinax Pfeil, 1983 non Thrinax Konow, 1885
  • Proteothrinax Pfeil, 2012

Rolfodon is an extinct genus of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae. It is closely related to the extant frilled sharks in the genus Chlamydoselachus, which it can be differentiated from by tooth morphology. It is named after late Canadian paleontologist Rolf Ludvigsen.[1]

The earliest fossil teeth of Rolfodon are known from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian), and it is one of two genera of Chlamydoselachidae along with Chlamydoselachus known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, although unlike Chlamydoselachus, Rolfodon went extinct by the Late Miocene. Remains are known from worldwide, including Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Angola, Ecuador, and Antarctica. As with modern frilled sharks, Rolfodon appears to have been specialized to deep-water environments.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cappetta, Henri; Morrison, Kurt; Adnet, Sylvain (2019-12-10). "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.