Janassa

Janassa
Temporal range: Lower Carboniferous to Permian
Janassa bituminosa & Menaspis armatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Petalodontiformes
Family: Janassidae
Jaekel, 1899
Species
  • J. bituminosa (Schlotheim, 1820) (type species)
  • J. clavata M'Coy, 1855
  • J. kochi Nielsen, 1932
  • J. clarki Lund, 1989
  • J. unguicula (Eastman, 1903)

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 Permian. It is known from teeth and a few poorly preserved body fossils from Germany (Kupferschiefer, Upper Permian) and England (Marl Slate, Upper Permian). According to the fossils, Janassa had a body plan very similar to that of the modern skate. Its teeth suggest it crushed and ate shellfish, such as brachiopods.

References

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