''Orodus'' (from el, ωραίος , 'beautiful' and el, ὀδούς 'tooth') is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of cartilaginous fish that lived from the late Pennsylvanian to the early

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 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

in what is now North America. ''O. greggi'' reached around long, while ''O. micropterygius'' just reached . It was a member of the

holocephali Holocephali ("complete heads"), sometimes given the term Euchondrocephali, is a subclass of cartilaginous fish in the class Chondrichthyes. The earliest fossils are of teeth and come from the Devonian period. Little is known about these primitiv ...

subclass, meaning that it was more closely related to

chimaeras Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes , known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively. At o ...

and their relatives ( eugeneodonts, petalodonts, etc), and not

elasmobranchs Elasmobranchii () is a subclass of Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish, including sharks (superorder Selachii), rays, skates, and sawfish (superorder Batoidea). Members of this subclass are characterised by having five to seven pairs of gil ...

sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

and

rays Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

References

Sources

* ''Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Supercontinent'' (Life of the Past) by Pat Vickers Rich, Thomas Hewitt Rich, Francesco Coffa, and Steven Morton * ''Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives'' (Marine Biology) by Jeffrey C. Carrier, John A. Musick, and Michael R. Heithaus * ''Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils'' by Rex Buchanan * ''Major Events in Early Vertebrate Evolution'' (Systematics Association Special Volume) by Per Erik Ahlberg

External links

''Orodus''
in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

Prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera Carboniferous cartilaginous fish Permian cartilaginous fish Pennsylvanian fish of North America Permian fish of North America Taxa named by Louis Agassiz {{paleo-cartilaginous-fish-stub