Platylithophycus

Platylithophycus is an extinct genus of elasmobranchs that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is known from a single specimen from the Niobrara Formation of Kansas, United States. It was originally identified as the fronds of a codiacean alga, then later as the cuttlebone of a cuttlefish.^[1][2] It was most recently reidentified as the gill arches and rakers of an elasmobranch of uncertain affinities.^[3] It might have been a filter feeding mackerel shark related to Aquilolamna.^[4]

Platylithophycus Temporal range: Coniacian-Campanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Genus:	†Platylithophycus Johnson & Howell, 1948[1]
Species:	†P. cretaceus
Binomial name
†Platylithophycus cretaceus Johnson & Howell, 1948