Amelacanthus is an extinct genus of elasmobranchian cartilaginous fish from the Paleozoic era.Elliott, D. K., Randall B. Irmis, Hansen, M. C., & Olson, T. J. (2004). Chondrichthyans from the Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Naco Formation of Central Arizona. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 24(2), 268–280. It is known from fin spines and currently contains four described species. It is known from the Permian and Carboniferous of North America, Europe, and Africa.Maisey, J. G. (1982). Studies on the Paleozoic selachian genus Ctenacanthus Agassiz. No. 2, Bythiacanthus St. John and Worthen, Amelacanthus, new genus, Eunemacanthus St. John and Worthen, Sphenacanthus Agassiz, and Wodnika Münster. American Museum novitates; no. 2722. It is also known from the Famennian of Russia.Lebedev, O. A., Ivanov, A. O., & Linkevich, V. V. (2020). Chondrichthyan spines from the Famennian (Upper Devonian) of Russia. Acta Geologica Polonica, 1-24. Specimens of Amelacanthus have additionally been found in Permian (Wordian) and Triassic (Induan) sediments of Oman. This makes Amelacanthus one of the only known Ctenacanths to have survived (albeit only briefly) the Permian-Trassic extinction event, going extinct only in the Early Triassic. M. B. Koot, G. Cuny, A. Tintori and R. J. Twitchett. (2013). A new diverse shark fauna from the Wordian (Middle Permian) Khuff Formation in the interior Haushi-Huqf area, Sultanate of Oman. Palaeontology 56:303-343
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