''Saivodus'' is an extinct genus of

ctenacanthiform Ctenacanthiformes is an Extinction, extinct Order (biology), order of cartilaginous fish. They possessed ornamented fin spines at the front of their dorsal fins and cladodont-type dentition, that is typically of a grasping morphology, though some ...

fish that existed during the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

and

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

periods. Fossils have been found in Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, Morocco, and the United States.

Taxonomy

''Saivodus'' was erected in 2006. The single species belonging to this genus was formerly included in the unrelated genus ''

Cladodus ''Cladodus'' is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fishes in the family Ctenacanthidae. As the name implies, they are a type of cladodont, primitive sharks with teeth designed to snag fish and swallow them whole, instead of sawing off chunks to s ...

''.

Description

''Saivodus'' is the largest known member of its group measuring or more in total body length, possibly even up to , based on individual teeth about or more in length. The shape of the teeth suggest it targeted soft-bodied prey.

References

External links

3D model of scanned and labeled ''S. striatus'' fossils
at

Sketchfab Sketchfab is a 3D asset website used to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D model, 3D, Virtual reality, VR and Augmented reality, AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D m ...

Ctenacanthiformes Monotypic prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera Carboniferous cartilaginous fish Mississippian fish of North America Carboniferous fish of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2006 {{paleo-cartilaginous-fish-stub