Atlanticopristis information

Atlanticopristis Temporal range: Middle Cretaceous, (Cenomanian) 100.5–93.9 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Hypothetical life reconstruction based on relatives
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Superorder:	Batoidea
Order:	Rajiformes
Family:	†Sclerorhynchidae
Genus:	†Atlanticopristis Pereira & Medeiros, 2008
Species:	†A. equatorialis
Binomial name
†Atlanticopristis equatorialis Pereira & Medeiros, 2008

Atlanticopristis (meaning "Atlantic saw") is an extinct genus of sclerorhynchid (a sawfish-like chondrichthyan) that lived during the Middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of what is now the Northeast Region of Brazil, between 100.5 and 93.9 million years ago. Fourteen fossil teeth from Atlanticopristis were found in the Alcântara Formation, and referred to the closely related Onchopristis in 2007; a redescription in 2008 by Brazilian paleontologists Manuel Medeiros and Agostinha Pereira assigned it to a new genus containing one species, Atlanticopristis equatorialis.

Like all sawfish, it would have had a long snout armed with modified fish scales shaped into "teeth", but Atlanticopristis's teeth had barbs on both sides. Atlanticopristis inhabited fresh to brackish water estuaries near large conifer forests, and lived in the same time and place as many species of bony fish, cartilaginous fish, and lobe finned fish, as well as some crocodilians, and several dinosaurs. Many of the taxa present in the Alcântara Formation are also known from the Middle Cretaceous Kem Kem Beds in Morocco, due to the past connection of South America and Africa into the supercontinent Gondwana.