Leptostyrax

Leptostyrax
Temporal range: Barremian-Campanian
Leptostyrax macrorhiza
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Lamniformes
Family: †Pseudoscapanorhynchidae
Genus: †Leptostyrax
Williston, 1900[1]
Type species
†Leptostyrax macrorhiza
(Cope, 1875)[3]
Other species
  • †Leptostyrax stychi
    Schmitz, Thies, & Kriwet, 2010[2]
Synonyms
Genus synonymy
    • Macrorhizodon
      Sokolov, 1965[4]
    • Megarhizodon
      Sokolov, 1978[5]
Species synonymy
  • L. macrorhiza
      • Lamna macrorhiza
        Cope, 1875
      • Leptostyrax bicuspidatus
        Williston, 1900
      • Megarhizodon priscus
        Sokolov, 1978

Leptostyrax is an extinct genus of mackerel sharks that lived during the Cretaceous. It contains two valid species, L. macrorhiza and L. stychi, found in North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.[2]

Vertebrae tentatively assigned to L. macrorhiza suggest lengths of 6.3–8.3 m (21–27 ft), making it one of the largest Cretaceous sharks.[6]

  1. ^ Williston, S.W. (1900). "Some fish teeth from the Kansas Cretaceous". Kansas University Quarterly. 9 (1): 27–42.
  2. ^ a b Schmitz, L.; Thies, D.; Kriwet, J. (2010). "Two new lamniform sharks (Leptostyrax stychi sp. nov. and Protolamna sarstedtensis sp. nov.) from the Early Cretaceous of NW Germany". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 257 (3): 283–296. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0074.
  3. ^ Cope, E.D. (1875). The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of the West. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.61834.
  4. ^ Sokolov, M.I. (1965). "Evolyutsiya zubov nekotorykh melovykh akul i rekonstruktsiya ikh ozubleniya [Evolution of the teeth of some Cretaceous sharks and reconstruction of their dentition]". Moskovkoe Obshchestvo Ispytatelie Prirody, Bulletin, Otodel Geologicheskii. 40: 133–134.
  5. ^ Sokolov, M.I. (1978). Zuby akul kak rukovodyashchiye iskopayemyye pri zonalʹnom raschlenenii melovykh otlozheniy Turanskoy plity [Shark teeth as guiding fossils in the zonal division of the Cretaceous deposits of the Turan Plate]. Moscow: Nedra.
  6. ^ Frederickson, J.A.; Schaefer, S.N.; Doucette-Frederickson, J.A. (2015). "A gigantic shark from the Lower Cretaceous Duck Creek Formation of Texas". PLOS ONE. 10 (6): e0127162. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1027162F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127162. PMC 4454486. PMID 26039066.