Leptostyrax
| Leptostyrax Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Leptostyrax macrorhiza | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Lamniformes |
| Family: | †Pseudoscapanorhynchidae |
| Genus: | †Leptostyrax Williston, 1900[1] |
| Type species | |
| †Leptostyrax macrorhiza | |
| Other species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Species synonymy
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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]
Diet
[edit]Leptostyrax was a carnivorous large shark in the family Pseudoscapanorhynchidae that existed in Australia. It's diet presumably consisted on fish and any other animals it could snatch and eat, such as other sharks and bony fish.[citation needed]
Distribution
[edit]Leptostyrax was mostly[clarification needed] cold blooded just like other shark species, mostly in wide oceans and shallow waters or either freshwater areas close to the mainland.[citation needed]
Characteristics
[edit]Leptostyrax had gills just like other shark species, with females growing a lot larger than male specimens.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ Williston, S.W. (1900). "Some fish teeth from the Kansas Cretaceous". Kansas University Quarterly. 9 (1): 27–42.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.