Orthacanthus

Orthacanthus Temporal range: Lower Carboniferous - Permian
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Fossil in Vienna
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Superorder:	Euselachii
Order:	Xenacanthida
Family:	Orthacanthidae
Genus:	Orthacanthus Agassiz, 1843
Species
Orthacanthus arcuatus (Newberry, 1856) Orthacanthus cylindricus (Agassiz, 1843) Orthacanthus senckenbergianus

File:Orthacanthustooth.jpg

A tricuspid Orthacanthus tooth from Bolsovian shale at Whitehaven, Cumbria, England [1]. Found by K & C Paxton

Orthacanthus senckenbergianus

Orthacanthus is an extinct genus of fresh-water shark from a family of prehistoric sharks known as xenacanths. Members of the genus had a long spine growing from the back of their skull and a very long dorsal fin, which ran all along its back giving it an eel-like appearance.

About 260 million years ago, Orthacanthus was the apex predator of freshwater swamps and bayous in Europe and North America. Its body reached nearly 10 feet (3 meters) in length and owned a peculiar set of double-fanged teeth. They first appeared about 400 million years ago in the Devonian, and became extinct just before the Mesozoic, about 225 million years ago.

In Popular Culture

Orthacanthus was featured in the Shark Week special "Prehistoric Sharks", where it was labelled as the terror of permian swamps. A set of jaws and teeth from Orthacanthus can be seen in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It also had a cameo appearance in The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island.