Janassa
Extinct genus of cartilaginous fishes
Janassa is an extinct genus of petalodont cartilaginous fish that lived in marine environments in what is now central United States of America and Europe during the Carboniferous and upper Permian.
It is known from teeth and a few poorly preserved body fossils from Germany (Kupferschiefer, Upper Permian) and England (Marl Slate, Upper Permian).
Janassa had a body plan very similar to that of the modern skate. Its teeth suggest it crushed and ate shellfish, such as brachiopods.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Janassa”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Janassa NMNS.jpg by Unknown author, See file page
- FMIB 51689 Teeth of Janassa linguaeformis Attley, Carboniferous, Family Petalodontidae.jpg by David Starr Jordan, Public domain
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