Description

Iniopteryx rushlaui
Pennsylvanian (Westphalian D)
Stark Shale, Dennis Formation, Bronson Group, Missouri Series
City Wide Rock Company, Iske Quarry, River Road, La Platte, Sarpy County
Nebraska, USA

135mm slab with 80mm remains of a highly unusual extinct shark. Ted White collection. These strange fishes are so rare few collectors have ever seen one. They have been variously decribed as sharks, chimaeroids and there is even speculation that their fins were broad enough that they might have behaved similar to modern “flying fish.” The site where these fish were found is now underneath a housing development and lost forever.

The original paper describing them can be found here: Zangerl, Rainer; Case, Gerard Ramon (1973). Iniopterygia : a new order of Chondrichthyan fishes from the Pennsylvanian of North America. Chicago : Field Museum of Natural History.

This archived Discovery Channel article is pretty brief, but has a great picture: Discovery Channel on Iniopteryx