Hybodontiformes

The hybodonts are an extinct group of sharks and are the sister taxa to the Neoselachii (all modern sharks, skates and rays). They were very successful in their own right and existed as a group for more than 200 million years. Their fossil record extends from the Carboniferous to the Late Cretaceous. The hybodonts dominated the shark faunas of the Early Mesozoic and unlike modern sharks were abundant in both freshwater and marine habitats. The group went into decline in the second half of the era and finally became extinct near to the end of the Cretaceous, close to, or as part of the same extinction that wiped out the non-avian Dinosaurs.