Hemipristis

Hemipristis is a genus of weasel sharks, family Hemigaleidae. It contains one extant species, the snaggletooth shark (H. elongata) and several extinct species.

Hemipristis
Temporal range: Middle Eocene–Recent[1]
Snaggletooth shark (H. elongata)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Hemigaleidae
Genus: Hemipristis
Agassiz, 1843
Type species
Hemipristis elongata
Klunzinger, 1871

Hemipristis has two distinct types of teeth in each section of its jaw. The ones on the upper jaw act as knives, cutting through the flesh of the prey, while the pointed ones on the bottom act as forks, spearing the prey and holding it down. Because this shark was poorly studied in the past and its top and bottom jaw teeth differ to such a great degree, its top and lower jaw teeth were assigned to a separate genus in the past.

Species

gollark: See, I had some ideas for encoding esodata in a somewhat interesting way as audio, but I don't know what to do with it beyond that.
gollark: Audio code and audio output only?
gollark: Ah, but it would be a cool encoding as sound files.
gollark: Well, I could come up with something which is a relatively simple encoding of an *im*practical language.
gollark: You try doing it.

See also

  • List of prehistoric cartilaginous fish

References

  1. Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera (Chondrichthyes entry)". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
  2. Portell, R.W.; Hubbell, G.; Donovan, S.K.; Green, J.L.; Harper, D.A.T.; Pickerill, R. (2008). "Miocene sharks in the Kendeace and Grand Bay formations of Carriacou, The Grenadines, Lesser Antilles". Caribbean Journal of Science. 44 (3): 279–286.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.