Diplodoselache
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| Diplodoselache Temporal range: Carboniferous | |
|---|---|
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| Neurocranium of D. woodi, preserved as a part and counterpart | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | †Xenacanthiformes |
| Family: | †Diplodoselachidae |
| Genus: | †Diplodoselache Dick, 1981 |
| Type species | |
| Diplodoselache woodi Dick, 1981 | |
| Other species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Diplodoselache is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Carboniferous of Scotland and possibly Russia.
Diplodoselache was described by John Dick in 1981 based on four complete skeletons preserved in Viséan-stage ironstone concretions. The type species, D. woodi, is named in honor of Scottish fossil collector Stan Wood, who discovered the first complete fossils of the species in the Midland Valley region of Scotland. Now-lost teeth similar to those of Diplodoselache were first described from the same region by naturalist Louis Agassiz in the 1840s and were assigned to the genus Diplodus. Similar, also now-lost teeth were later described by Ramsay Traquair in the 1880s and assigned to the species Diplodus parvulus, and these may also have belonged to Diplodoselache.[1][2] The possible species Diplodoselache antiqua is known from the Tula Oblast of Russia.[2]
Description
The teeth of Diplodoselache had two large outer cusps and one very small inner cusp.[2] The animal had an elongated body, a forked, heterocercal tail fin, and a covering of dermal denticles. It had a single dorsal fin, which supported a fin spine that was similar to those on the back of the head in other xenacanthiform fishes. The largest complete specimen is 1.12 meters in length, but in Dick's description of the taxon he suggests some individuals were "considerably greater than one metre" in length.[1]