Juergen Pollerspoeck

Zoologische Staatssammlung München · Ichthyological department

Megalolamna is an elusive extinct shark genus (Lamniformes: Otodontidae) previously known from the upper Oligo-cene-Miocene of the USA, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Japan. Here, we document the first occurrence of Megalolamna from Miocene marine deposits in Europe, specifically from Austria, France, Germany, and Italy. Although the taxon is regarde...

Extensive bulk-sampling of the continuous Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary section at Gams (Styria, Austria) allows for the first time the description of the elasmobranch communities inhabiting the bathyal environment of this well-known section. The sampled succession comprises six horizons from the uppermost Maastrichtian (upper part of Nephrolites f...

This study reports elasmobranch remains from two fossil-rich horizons in the earliest Danian Olching Formation at Waidach, Austria. These outer neritic assemblages complement previous fine-scale bulk-sampling of latest Maastrichtian horizons at Waidach and document a regional elasmobranch faunal turnover across the Cretaceous-Palaeo-gene (K-Pg) bou...

Otodus megalodon fossil occurrences: blue dots: records after Pimiento et al. (2016); yellow stars and green wale symbol: records after Eastman (1903, 1906), Belyaev & Glikman (1970), Séret (1987); red star: this study; whale symbol: Cetacean ear bones after Eastman (1906) (green together with O. megalodon).

Otodus megalodon fossil occurrences: blue dots: records after Pimiento et al. (2016); yellow stars and green wale symbol: records after Eastman (1903, 1906), Belyaev & Glikman (1970), Séret (1987); red star: this study; whale symbol: Cetacean ear bones after Eastman (1906) (green together with O. megalodon).

With the second part of the study, the species of sharks from the Molasse of Baltringen published by Probst (1878) are reinterpreted and taxonomically brought to the current state of knowledge. The main focus of the work is on the illustration originals or types deposited in the museum of the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen. The material was...

In this short communication, we describe the first reported case of an in-situ observation and subsequent sampling of a fossil Otodus megalodon tooth from a deep-sea locality in the Pacific Ocean (14.11332°N, 167.39357°W; 3090 m depth). The additional documentation of its location prior to collection allows for tentative conclusions on surrounding...

Moderne Haie werden heute taxonomisch in die zwei Überordnungen Galeomorphii und Squalomorphii eingeteilt. Im Gegensatz zu der sehr diversen Ordnung der Dornhaie (Squaliformes, 143 Arten), enthalten die vier weiteren Ordnungen (Echinorhiniformes, Hexanchiformes, Squatiniformes und Pristiophoriformes) der Squalomorphii insgesamt nur 45 rezente Arten...

Dramatische Massenaussterbe-Ereignisse prägen unseren Planeten seit der Entwicklung erster Lebensformen. Seit der Entwicklung vielzelliger Organismen kam es zu fünf entscheidenden Umweltkatastrophen, die sogenannten Big Five, welche stets mit einem signifikanten Einschnitt der Biodiversität korrelierten. Das letzte und wohl auch prominenteste Big F...

This study describes for the first time a number of distinct fossil teeth documenting several deep-sea shark species from the Eocene, which were previously not recorded from the North Sea Basin, including Apristurus sp., Orthechinorhinus cf. pfeili, Deania cf. angoumeensis, Squaliolus sp., Etmopterus cf. cahuzaci and Paraetmopterus nolfi. Our findi...

The table and provided download links below are intended for informational use in Chondrichthyan research. The allocation aims for faciliating to find species numbers and most recent information on taxonomic changes. We will regularly update the table and download links at lest twice annually. The updates will be announced on facebook (https://www....

The identification of mass-extinction events and the assessment of their impact on communities are key questions in palaeontology. In order to understand these catastrophic events on sharks and fish communities, it is necessary to combine reliable geological, paleontological and sedimentological data. Although the interpretation of depositional env...

The asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary influenced one of the most severe first order mass extinction events since complex life evolved. Although numerous global-scale studies focused on the ecological crisis of marine biota during the K/Pg event, little is known about the cascade of changing environmental parameters that a...

The previously known occurrences of Protoxynotus were stratigraphically disjunct with the first occurrence in the Turonian being separated by a gap of about 6 Myr from the Campanian occurrences. The new record of isolated teeth from the Late Santonian of Lebanon described in this study narrows this gap down to about 3 Myr with a hiatus spanning the...

With the present first part of the study the ray species from the Molasse of Baltringen (Baden-Wuerttemberg, SW Germany) published by Probst (1877) are reinterpreted and taxonomically updated to the current state of knowledge. The main focus of this work is on the illustration originals or types deposited in the museum of the Eberhard Karls Univers...

Extensive bulk sampling of seven horizons of a continuous succession deposited in an outer neritic environment of the latest Maastrichtian yielded more than three thousand ichthyoliths, including 1347 elasmobranch teeth. The sampled succession represents a characteristic deep-water fauna dominated by small squaliform sharks with an increase of spec...

The deposit is located in the Baltringen Formation (Middle Ottnangian, lower Miocene). In total, 27 genera could be identified (sharks: Alopias, Araloselachus, Carcharhinus, Carcharias, Carcharoides, Carcharodon, Centrophorus, Chaenogaleus, Galeocerdo, Hemipristis, Isistius, Mitsukurina, Nanocetorhinus, Notorynchus, Pachyscyllium, Pristiophorus, Ps...

Abstract In this study we conduct literature research of medieval zoological and specifically ichthyological literature which may be the source of motivation for specific ways of mounting dried shark specimens located in several towns in Southern Germany and Austria. German naturalist Conrad Gessner was the first around 1550 ad who described all a...

Deep-sea environments are thought to provide potential refuge environments during catastrophic events for chondrichthyans. Although the K/Pg boundary represents one of the five mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic, little is known about its consequences over elasmobranch evolution and ecological structure of shark faunas. Here, we present an e...

Jahresbericht 2010 und Mitteilungen Der Freunde der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Historische Geologie München e.V., 50, 47–52: Im Rahmen der Rubrik »Freunde aktiv. möchte ich Ihnen zwei abgeschlossene Projekte vorstellen, die gemeinsam mit Beteiligung von Wissenschaftlerinnen/Wissenschaftlern verschiedener Institutionen durchgef...

Due to the peculiar combination of dental features characteristic for different squaliform families, the position of the Late Cretaceous genera Protoxynotus and Paraphorosoides within squaliform families has long been controversial. In this study, we revise these genera based on previously known fossil teeth and new dental material. The phylogeneti...

Diet is a crucial trait of an animal’s lifestyle and ecology. The trophic level of an organism indicates its functional position within an ecosystem and holds significance for its ecology and evolution. Here, we demonstrate the use of zinc isotopes (δ66Zn) to geochemically assess the trophic level in diverse extant and extinct sharks, including the...

The newly collected shark and ray tooth fossils from the marine sediments of the Upper Marine Molasse close to Allerding (4.8 km SE of Schärding, Austria) allow for a review of the hitherto known diversity comprising a taxonomic update and the documentation of additional taxa. Besides ten taxa already known from the area, the following taxa were co...

In this study we describe a new kitefin shark (Dalatiidae) genus and species Dracipinna bracheri gen. et sp. nov. based on upper Oligocene and lower Miocene tooth fossils. The teeth were excavated at three different sites which all lie in transgression phases. The fossil shark teeth are diverse and, depending on the excavation site, indicate pelagi...

The sandpit near Rengetsweiler (Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany) is a famous locality for fossil shark and ray teeth from the Upper Marine Molasse (Lower Miocene). A total of 21 shark and ray genera were recovered from these sediments (Aetobatus, Alopias, Araloselachus, Carcharhinus, Carcharias, Carcharodon, Centrophorus, ?Dasyatis, Galeocerdo, Hemip...

The driving forces and the impact on diversity patterns of mass-extinction events are one of the key-questions in palaeontology. Although the K/Pg extinction event is not considered as the most severe, this last extinction has enormously influenced the evolution leading to the modern biota. Despite numerous studies dealing with the most prominent a...

Sibert and Rubin (Reports, 4 June 2021, p. 1105) claim to have identified a previously unidentified, major extinction event of open-ocean sharks in the early Miocene. We argue that their interpretations are based on an experimental design that does not account for a considerable rise in the sedimentation rate coinciding with the proposed event, nor...

The distinct morphology of teeth of the dogfish sharks Squalus spp. allows for tracking its evolutionary history. Fossils of the genus are known since the early Cretaceous; however, fossilized teeth of Squalus from that period are scarce. Here, we report on the oldest finding of a Squalus tooth fossil (upper Campanian-lower Maastrichtian) from the...

The article describes two ancient shark specimens of Lamna nasus from Pfreimd (Bavaria, Germany).

Auch nach mehreren Jahrzehnten der Erforschung wartet die egerische Transgressionsabfolge von Unterrudling bei Eferding (Oberösterreich), welche den Übergang der Flachwasserablagerungen der Linz-Melk Formation zu den Tiefwassersedimenten der Eferding Formation (EF) umfasst, noch mit Überraschungen auf. So war kurzzeitig eine Schicht in der siltig-t...

The sediments of the vicinity of St. Pankraz near Salzburg are well-known for its extraordinary fossil richness. The most popular outcrop comprises sediments from the Eocene, yielding a diverse fossil content of invertebrates as well as scarce vertebrates. Among the vertebrates are remains of turtles, crocodiles, terrestrial-and marine mammals, and...

Repeated bulk sampling for over a decade in an indurated glauconitic sandy marl horizon at St. Pankraz Salzburg, Austria, has yielded a diverse assemblage of 37 elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) from the early middle Eocene (Lutetian). This elasmobranch fauna is dominated by epipelagic and mesopelagic taxa known today to preferentially inhabit the mi...

The North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB) comprises one of the most complete sedimentary records of the Oligocene and Miocene. Driven by global sea-level fluctuations, vast sedimentary influx and tectonic movement. The locality of Unterrudling near Eferding (Upper Austria) exposes the largest succession of sedimentary deposits from the late Oligocene...

A three‐ton shipment of dry shark fins was examined by German customs in 2017 leading to the confiscation of 405 kg of potential CITES species. We analyzed a subsample of this material (115 specimens) using DNA sequence‐based identification and compared results to morphological screening of CITES species. We found a mixture of CITES regulated (4 of...

Apart from wet-collection specimens, shark and ray (Neoselachii) museum collection specimens are often represented as articulated jaws or single teeth. In many cases, detailed information on locality, species identification and data on the specimen's body are lacking. The identification key for jaws and teeth presented herein is part B of a planned...

An important character on several taxonomic levels for shark identification is the tooth morphology. Sharks show a variety of highly specialized dentitions reflecting adaptations to their feeding habits. Intraspecific variation of tooth morphology such as sexual or ontogenetic dimorphism is poorly known in many species, even though tooth morphology...

Deep-neritic sediments of the Eferding Formation (Egerian, Upper Oligocene) of Upper Austria from the Kamig kaolinite quarry revealed minute teeth of the putatively planktivorous shark genus Nanocetorhinus. This is the oldest unambiguous record of this rarely documented genus, which was known so far only from Miocene deposits of Europe, North Ameri...

In the fossil record, sawsharks (family Pristiophoridae BLEEKER, 1859) include the genera Pristiophorus MÜLLER & HENLE, 1837, Pliotrema REGAN, 1906 and Ikamauius KEYES, 1979, which are mainly or exclusively represented by isolated lateral denticles of their saw-like rostra or less commonly (Pristiophorus) also by tiny oral teeth. We studied a large...

The Early Ottnangian (Early Miocene, Burdigalian) marine deposit of Ursendorf (Baden-Württemberg, South Germany) belongs to the Upper Marine Molasse (UMM) unit in the Northern Alpine Foreland Basin. The outcropping sediments mainly consist of coarse-grained, poorly sorted sands, partly showing large-scale cross-bedding. In these sediments, 24 gener...

Elasmobranch remains are quite common in Miocene deposits and were the subject of numerous studies since the middle of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the taxonomic diversity of the Marine Molasse sharks, rays and skates is still largely unknown. Here, we describe 37 taxa from the lower Miocene of the Molasse Basin: 21 taxa could be identifie...

Elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, and skates) have been the predominant predators of the Central Paratethys during its fully marine phases in the Oligocene and Miocene. Whilst middle and upper Miocene strata are frequently outcropping in the Austrian part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB), upper Oligocene and lower Miocene sediments of the Egeri...

In addition to articulated, mostly formaldehyde-fixed and ethanol-preserved, taxidermy or anatomical specimens, sharks and rays are represented in scientific collections by numerous jaws and isolated teeth. These specimens often source from historical collections where existing informations about species, sex or geographic origin in many cases are...

Fossil tip‐dating allows for the inclusion of morphological data in divergence time estimates based on both extant and extinct taxa. Neoselachii have a cartilaginous skeleton, which is less prone to fossilization compared to skeletons of Osteichthyans. Therefore, the majority of the neoselachian fossil record is comprised of single teeth, which fos...

In recent years Azorean fishermen reported the presence of the smalltooth sand tiger shark, Odontaspis ferox (Risso, 1810), a very rare demersal shark species, associated with insular shelves and slopes, with occasional incursions into shallow waters and of poorly known biology and ecology. There are fourteen new records of this species, between 19...

Fossil upper and lower squaliform shark teeth from the upper Austrian marine Molasse (Paratethys, Upper Egerian, Aquitanian) were collected. For testing the phylogenetic signal of 31 reviewed dental characters of both fossil and extant etmopterids and somniosids, we performed phylogenetic analyses using both parsimony and maximum likelihood approac...

This article describes the oldest record of a tooth of the shark genus Oxynotus from Europe. Oxynotus, Miocene, new record, Germany, Europe,

This paper contains a collection of 817 citations (no conference abstracts) on topics related to extant and extinct Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) as well as a list of Chondrichthyan species and hosted parasites newly described in 2017. The list is the result of regular queries in numerous journals, books and online publications. It p...

In this study, a diverse fauna of fossil elasmobranch teeth from the Early Miocene (Middle Burdigalian) is analysed. The fossil diversity strongly resembles extant deep-water shark and ray assemblages. The fossils were collected from the Upper Marine Molasse of the lower Ottnangian in the Neuhofener Beds location, Mitterdorf, Germany. The collectio...

This paper contains a collection of 803 citations (no conference abstracts) on topics related to extant and extinct Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) as well as a list of Chondrichthyan species and hosted parasites newly described in 2016. The list is the result of regular queries in numerous journals, books and online publications. It p...

no abstract

This paper contains a collection of 786 citations (no conference abstracts) on topics related to extant and extinct Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) as well as a list of Chondrichthyan species and hosted parasites newly described in 2015. The list is the result of regular queries in numerous journals, books and online publications. It p...

This is the second version of the database report “Host-Parasite List” and “Parasite-Host List” of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali). The two lists result from the analysis of 1,078 research articles reporting on host-parasite relations in diverse species of sharks, rays, and chimaeras. The list contains 6,891 recor...

Keywords: Parasquatina zitteli, Heterodontus sp., Scyliorhinus sp., Orectolobiformes, Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, Maastrichtian

This paper contains a collection of 1099 citations (685 articles and 414 conference abstracts) on topics related to extant and extinct Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) as well as a list of Chondrichthyan species and hosted parasites newly described in 2014. The list is the result of regular queries in numerous journals, books and online...

Parasquatina zitteli nov. sp. (Elasmobranchii: Orectolobiformes) aus dem Maastricht von Oberbayern (Gerhartsreiter Schichten, Siegsdorf) und Bemerkungen zur Verbreitung der Ordnung Orectolobiformes. Zusammenfassung Aus dem Gerhartsreiter Graben bei Siegsdorf wird der erste Nachweis der Gattung Parasquatina dokumentiert und aufgrund der morphologisc...

A single bed of conglomeratic, fossil-rich marls intercalated in siliciclastic Lower Egerian deposits (informally denoted as Thalberg Beds, middle to late Chattian, Late Oligocene) yields a diverse elasmobranch fauna. The conglomeratic bed is exposed in the Thalberg Graben, a few km south of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria. It forms part of the Lower Mar...

A rich assemblage of elasmobranch teeth of Early Miocene age (Ottnangian, Upper Marine Molasse) is described from the Heigelsberger Ditch near Teisendorf (Upper Bavaria, Germany). The fauna includes 13 shark and 4 batoid species, including Centrophorus cf. granulosus, Isistius triangulus, Squalus sp., Pristiophorus suevicus, Squatina sp., Mitsukuri...

This collection is the result of research in numerous journals, books and online publications. It contains 721 citations of papers about living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali) and a list of 2013 new described species and parasites of elasmobranchs.

This collection is the result of research in numerous journals, books and online publications. It contains 837 citations of papers about living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali), a list of 2012 new described species and parasites of elasmobranchs. Pollerspöck, J. (2013), Bibliography database of living/f...

This collection is the result of research in numerous journals, books and online publications. It contains more than 700 citations of papers about living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali) and a list of 2011 new described species.

This collection is the result of research in numerous journals, books and online publications. It contains more than 500 citations of papers about living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali).

This is the first version of an “Host - Parasites List” of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali). This first edition records more than 1.500 different species of parasites recovered from more than 400 species of sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras. All information about the parasites are also available at http://shark-ref...

This collection is the result of research in numerous journals, books and online publications. It contains more than 350 citations of papers about living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichtyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali).