Lamniformes

Grey nurse shark Carcharias taurus, photographed by J. W. H. Ferguson.

Belongs within: Selachimorpha.
Contains: Lamnidae.

The Lamniformes, lamnoid sharks, are a group of sharks with the gill slits anterior to the origin of the pectoral fins, in which the distal fin radials extend to the margins of the fin web. Most are large and active sharks, often found in shallow waters (Bond 1996). The basking shark Cetorhinus maximus is the second largest living shark species.

<==Lamniformes
    |--Odontaspididae [Carchariidae] B02a
    |    |--Pseudomegachasma VF21
    |    |--Odontaspis C84
    |    |    |--O. ferox C84
    |    |    |--O. noronhai C84
    |    |    `--O. taurus CH97
    |    `--Carcharias Rafinesque 1810 MW07, CDZ93 [incl. Eugomphodus Gill 1861 CDZ93, Synodontaspis White 1931 CDZ93]
    |         |--‘Synodontaspis’ acutissima [=Odontaspis acutissima] F91
    |         |--C. arenarius G75
    |         |--‘Synodontaspis’ cuspidata [=Odontaspis cuspidata; incl. S. denticulata] F91
    |         |--C. littoralis F15
    |         |--C. obscurus LG91
    |         |--C. striatula Dalinkevicius 1935 CDZ93
    |         `--C. taurus (Rafinesque 1810) B02a [=Eugomphodus taurus C84]
    `--+--Mitsukurinidae [Scapanorhynchidae] C84
       |    |--Scapanorhynchus owstoni W85
       |    |--Mitsukurina owstoni MW07, C84
       |    `--Anomotodon principalis Cappetta 1975 CDZ93
       `--Alopiidae CDZ93
            |--Paranomotodon angustidens (Reuss 1845) CDZ93
            `--Alopias Rafinesque 1810 MW07, G62
                 |--A. caudatus G75
                 |--A. denticulatus Cappetta 1981 CDZ93
                 |--A. exigua (Probst 1879) F91
                 |--A. greyi G75
                 |--A. latidens (Leriche 1908) [=Alopecias latidens] F91
                 |--A. pelagicus C84
                 |--A. superciliosus C84
                 |--‘Carcharinus’ vulpes G62
                 `--A. vulpinus (Bonnaterre 1788) B02d

Lamniformes incertae sedis:
  Pseudocarcharias VF21 [Pseudocarchariidae B96]
    `--P. kamoharai VF21
  Cetorhinus B02c [Cetorhinidae C84]
    |--C. maximus (Gunnerus 1765) B02c
    `--C. parvus Leriche 1908 CDZ93
  Megachasma B96 [Megachasmidae HMM12]
    `--M. pelagios Taylor, Compagno & Struhsaker 1983 HMM12
  Lamnidae B02b
  Truyolsodontos Bernárdez 2018 B18
    |--*T. estauni Bernárdez 2018 B18
    `--T. magnus (Landemaine 1991) [=Protoscyliorhinus magnus] B18
  Cretoxyrhinidae CDZ93
    |--Cretolamna twiggsensis Case 1981 CDZ93
    |--Cretoxyrhina mantelli VF21
    `--Protolamna Cappetta 1980 CDZ93
         `--P. infracretacea Leriche 1910 CDZ93
  Otodontidae CDZ93
    |--Otodus obliquus Agassiz 1843 CDZ93
    `--Parotodus benedeni (Le Hon 1871) CDZ93 [=Isurus benedeni F91]
  Anacoracidae CDZ93
    |--Pseudocorax affinis (Münster in Agassiz 1843) CDZ93
    |--Paracorax jaekeli (Woodward 1895) CDZ93
    `--Squalicorax CDZ93
         |--S. australis (Chapman 1909) CDZ93
         |--S. bassanii (Gemmellaro 1920) CDZ93
         |--S. kaupi (Arambourg 1952) CDZ93
         |--S. pristodontus (Agassiz 1843) CDZ93
         `--S. yangaensis (Dartevelle & Casier 1943) CDZ93
  Lamiostoma [Lamiostomatidae] F91
    `--L. gracilis (le Hon 1871) F91
  Aquilolamnidae VF21
    |--Cretomanta VF21
    |--Platylithophycus VF21
    `--Aquilolamna Vullo, Frey et al. 2021 VF21
         `--*A. milarcae Vullo, Frey et al. 2021 VF21

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B18] Bernárdez, E. 2018. Truyolsodontos estauni n. gen., n. sp., Truyolsodontidae, a new family of lamniform sharks from the Cenomanian of northern Spain. Annales de Paléontologie 104: 175–181.

[B96] Bond, C. E. 1996. Biology of Fishes 2^nd ed. Saunders College Publishing: Fort Worth.

[B02a] Branstetter, S. 2002a. Sand tiger sharks. Family Odontaspididae. In: Collette, B. B., & G. Klein-MacPhee (eds) Bigelow and Schroeder’s Fishes of the Gulf of Maine 3^rd ed. pp. 25–27. Smithsonian Institute Press: Washington.

[B02b] Branstetter, S. 2002b. Mackerel sharks. Family Lamnidae. In: Collette, B. B., & G. Klein-MacPhee (eds) Bigelow and Schroeder’s Fishes of the Gulf of Maine 3^rd ed. pp. 27–32. Smithsonian Institute Press: Washington.

[B02c] Branstetter, S. 2002c. Basking shark. Family Cetorhinidae. In: Collette, B. B., & G. Klein-MacPhee (eds) Bigelow and Schroeder’s Fishes of the Gulf of Maine 3^rd ed. pp. 32–34. Smithsonian Institute Press: Washington.

[B02d] Branstetter, S. 2002d. Thresher sharks. Family Alopiidae. In: Collette, B. B., & G. Klein-MacPhee (eds) Bigelow and Schroeder’s Fishes of the Gulf of Maine 3^rd ed. pp. 34–36. Smithsonian Institute Press: Washington.

[CDZ93] Cappetta, H., C. Duffin & J. Zidek. 1993. Chondrichthyes. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 593–609. Chapman & Hall: London.

[CH97] Castro, P., & M. E. Huber. 1997. Marine Biology 2^nd ed. WCB McGraw-Hill: Boston.

[C84] Compagno, L. J. V. 1984. FAO Species Catalogue vol. 4. Sharks of the World: An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 2—Carcharhiniformes. United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Rome.

[F15] Fowler, H. W. 1915. Cold-blooded vertebrates from Florida, the West Indies, Costa Rica, and eastern Brazil. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 67 (2): 244–269.

[F91] Freess, W. B. 1991. Beiträge zur Kenntnis von Fauna und Flora des marinen Mitteloligozäns bei Leipzig. Altenburger Naturwissenschaftliche Forschungen 6: 3–74.

[G62] Garrick, J. A. F. 1962. Reasons in favor of retaining the generic name Carcharhinus Blainville, and a proposal for identifying its type species as the Indo-Pacific black-tipped shark, C. melanopterus. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 75: 89–96.

[G75] Grant, E. M. 1975. Guide to Fishes. The Co-ordinator-General’s Department: Brisbane (Australia).

[HMM12] Human, B. A., S. M. Morrison & I. D. MacLeod. 2012. Is the megamouth shark susceptible to mega-distortion? Investigating the effects of twenty-two years of fixation and preservation on a large specimen of Megachasma pelagios (Chondrichthyes: Megachasmidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 27 (1): 7–20.

[LG91] Li, W.-H., & D. Graur. 1991. Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution. Sinauer: Sunderland (MA).

[MW07] Mallatt, J., & C. J. Winchell. 2007. Ribosomal RNA genes and deuterostome phylogeny revisited: more cyclostomes, elasmobranchs, reptiles, and a brittle star. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43: 1005–1022.

[VF21] Vullo, R., E. Frey, C. Ifrim, M. A. González González, E. S. Stinnesbeck & W. Stinnesbeck. 2021. Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans. Science 371: 1253–1256.

[W85] Williams, M. E. 1985. The “cladodont level” sharks of the Pennsylvanian Black Shales of central North America. Palaeontographica Abt. A 190: 83–158.

Last updated: 20 March 2022.