Cladoselache

Old reconstruction

North America

Cladoselache was a genus of cartilaginous fish that lived in the Upper Devonian. Fossils from shales in Ohio are so well preserved that you can see internal organs, parts of the skin and scales of bony fish and shark teeth in the stomach. Have been described in several ways.

Features

Cladoselache species were one to two meters long and had a typical streamlined Haigestalt, a squat head and five to eight gill slits. They had two dorsal fins, which were each supported by a sting, large pectoral fins and small pelvic fins. An anal fin was not present, no Klaspern, so that one must suspect an external fertilization. The caudal fin was heterocercal, but in contrast to that of most modern sharks externally symmetrical ( like today when herring and great white shark ).

Cladoselache species had no ribs. The teeth had a large main peak, as well as right and left of two small satellite peaks. They were not like the modern sharks for the most part covered with placoid scales, but had only a few around the eyes and on the edges of the fins.