Bandringa

Bandringa is an extinct genus of elasmobranch known from the Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. There is currently a single known species, B. rayi, which constitutes the sole member of the monotypic family Bandringidae. The genus was described in 1969 by paleontologist Rainer Zangerl, and is known from exceptionally preserved individuals found in the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois.

== Discovery and naming == The holotype specimen, FMNH PF 5686, is a juvenile individual which was found in an ironstone concretion in Illinois during the summer of 1967. This specimen was found by Ray Bandringa, to whom the genus and species owe their name. By 1979, two species from this genus were described, B. rayi and B. herdinae, but the differences between the two were found to be taphonomic in origin. All Mazon Creek individuals appear to represent juveniles, suggesting the area was a nursery for them. Also supporting this notion are fossilized egg cases found in the same localities, though it is unclear whether they belong to this genus. Adult fossils attributed to B. rayi have also been found in spoil heaps from Five Points coal mines near Conesville, Ohio and Cannelton, Pennsylvania, both of which contain rocks of the Kittaning Formation of the Allegheny Group which were roughly contemporaneous with the Mazon Creek deposits. This material includes a partial skull and complete rostrum which are roughly 16 cm (6.2 in) in length.