Ghost sharks / Chimaeras
digital painting, 2025
see fossil examples
Chimaeriformes are cartilaginous fish, but neither true sharks nor rays/skates. These ancient vertebrates belong to the most basal living animals to possess jaws, although many traits are very special and derived on their own lineage. These chimaeras didn’t change much since the Carboniferous, right after the big mass extinction of the huge diversity of ancient fishes including the fully extinct placoderms.
This plate of three of the less than 60 extant chimaeras was first produced for a poster dealing with a Palaeogene egg capsule, which is another palaeontological item. The sole living fish here was inspired by book illustrations, but drawn totally new based on a bunch of photographs. Not to scale, compilation from top to bottom: Harriotta raleighana (narrownose chimaera, inhabiting deep oceans), Chimaera monstrosa (the Rabbit fish of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean sea), and Callorhinchus milli (the Australian ghostshark, Southern Australia to New Zealand).