First body fossil of a "shark" known only from teeth!

[Halichoeres]

As devotees of a certain shark, whose notoriety stems entirely from an infantile obsession with size, are well aware, the majority of fossil chondrichthyans are known only or mostly from teeth. Until recently, that was also true of the Devonian shark relative Phoebodus. A new species in the genus, from the Devonian of Morocco, has just been described, based on a nearly complete skeleton--a real rarity for an animal with no true bone. Meet Phoebodus saidselachus (I think this means "Said's bright-toothed shark," but the paper is behind a paywall, so I can't be sure). A phylogenetic analysis finds it to be a stem-elasmobranch, meaning it is more closely related to sharks and rays than to chimeras.

Here's the holotype:

("mc" = Meckel's cartilage, which is the lower jaw in chondrichthyans, in case that helps you orient yourself)

And a reconstruction comparing Phoebodus (A) with the Carboniferous chondrichthyan Thrinacoselache (B) and the modern frilled shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus (C):

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out who did the reconstruction, but I'll update this post when I get the pdf.

Paper (paywall): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.1336

And a write-up at phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2019-10-skeletal-phoebodus-morocco.html

[brontosauruschuck]

That is a very interesting find. I bet the paper is really cool. Oh well.

[Halichoeres]

I actually managed to get the pdf. I would be happy to send it to you if you pm me your email address.

[brontosauruschuck]

Woah! Cool! Did you ask the paper's author? I heard a rumor that most authors are willing to give out their papers for free.

[Halichoeres]

Woah! Cool! Did you ask the paper's author? I heard a rumor that most authors are willing to give out their papers for free.

No, I actually got it from a friend of mine who is a student of one of the authors. But it's true, authors are frequently willing to give people copies. As you may know, authors make no money from the articles, every penny of a subscription or article purchase goes to the publishers.