Falcatus

Falcatus is an extinct genus of falcatid chondrichthyan which lived during the early Carboniferous Period in Bear Gulch bay and what is now Montana.

Falcatus
Temporal range: 335–318 Ma Middle Viséan - Late Serpukhovian
Specimen in Vienna
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: †Symmoriida
Family: †Falcatidae
Genus: †Falcatus
Lund, 1985
Species
  • Falcatus falcatus

Description
Life restoration of female (top) and male (bottom)
Falcatus falcatus male. Lower Carboniferous, Montana, USA

It was a 25–30 cm or 10-12 inches long "cladodont-toothed stethacanthid shark" [1] The first material known from the genus were the prominent fin spines that curved anteriorly over the head of the animal. When first described in 1883 from the St. Louis Limestone, these remains were given the name Physonemus falcatus. However, in 1985, fossils of a new type of condrichthyan from Montana were described that displayed a high degree of sexual dimorphism. The same spines that were previously named P. falcatus were found on one of the morphs, identified as the male due to the presence of valvae.

[2]

References
  • David Norman. (2001): The Big Book Of Dinosaurs. Pg.84 and Pg.286, Walcome books.
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2008-09-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Fossil Fish of Bear Gulch 2005 by Richard Lund and Eileen Grogan Accessed 2009-01-14
  2. The morphology of Falcatus falcatus (St. John and Worthen), a Mississippian stethacanthid chondrichthyan from the Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 5(1):1-19.
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