Janassa

Taxobox
name = "Janassa"
status = fossil

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image_caption = "Janassa bituminosa" & "Menaspis armatus"
fossil_range = Lower Carboniferous to Permian
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Chondrichthyes
ordo = Petalodontiformes
familia = Janassidae
familia_authority = Jaekel, 1899
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "J. bituminosa" (Schlotheim, 1820) (type species)
* "J. clavata" M'Coy, 1855
* "J. kochi" Nielsen, 1932
* "J. clarki" Lund, 1989
* "J. unguicula" (Eastman, 1903)

"Janassa" is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish that lived in marine environments in what is now central United States of America and Europe during the Carboniferous and Permian. It is known primarily from teeth, and a few badly preserved whole fossils from Germany. According to the fossils, "Janassa" had a body plan very similar to that of the modern skate. However, "Janassa" was a Petalodont, a kind of ancient cartilaginous fish related to chimaeras. Its teeth suggest it crushed and ate shellfish, such as brachiopods.