Falcatidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

cartilaginous fish Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class of jawed fish that contains the cartilaginous fish or chondrichthyans, which all have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fish'', which have skeleto ...

belonging to the order

Symmoriiformes Symmoriiformes is an extinct order of cartilaginous fish. Originally named Symmoriida by Zangerl (1981), the name has since been corrected to Symmoriiformes to avoid confusion with a family. The symmoriiform fossils record begins during the late ...

. Members of this family include ''

Falcatus ''Falcatus'' is an extinct genus of falcatid chondrichthyan which lived during the early Carboniferous Period in Bear Gulch bay in what is now Montana. Description This fish was quite small, only getting to around 25–30 cm or 10-12 i ...

'', a small fish from the

Bear Gulch Limestone The Bear Gulch Limestone is a limestone-rich Lens (geology), geological lens in central Montana, renowned for the quality of its marine fossils from the late Mississippian (geology), Mississippian subperiod, about 324 million years ago. It is expo ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. The family first appeared around the start of 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 there is some evidence that they survived well into the early Cretaceous, though its putative Cretaceous members were also argued to be more likely neoselachians.

Genera

*'' Denaea'' Ginter, M., Hampe., Duffin, C. 2010. Handbook of Paleoichthyology: Volume 3D- Paleozoic Elasmobranchii teeth. Verlag Dr. Freidrich Pfeil *''

'' *''

Ozarcus ''Ozarcus'' is an extinct genus of symmoriiform cartilaginous fish from the Carboniferous period of Arkansas. The type species, ''Ozarcus mapesae'', was named in 2014 based on cartilaginous skulls from the Serpukhovian-age Fayetteville Formatio ...

''? *'' Stethacanthulus'' *''

Cosmoselachus ''Cosmoselachus'' is an extinct genus of symmoriiform chondrichthyan from the Upper Carboniferous ( Mississippian subperiod) aged Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas, United States. The genus contains a single species, ''C. mehlingi'', which is kno ...

'' *''

Cretacladoides ''Cretacladoides'' ("cladodont likeness from the Cretaceous") is a genus of chondrichthyan, possibly a falcatid, found in France and Austria. Known solely from teeth, mainly found in the Klausrieglerbach locality of Austria, it consists of two ...

''? – possible

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

(

Valanginian In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 137.05 ± 0.2 Ma and 132.6 ± 0.2 Ma (million years ago). The Valanginian Stage succeeds the Berriasian Stage of the Lower Cretac ...

) member of the family

References

Symmoriiformes Prehistoric cartilaginous fish families Carboniferous cartilaginous fish Carboniferous fish of North America {{paleo-cartilaginous-fish-stub