Acanthodii

Acanthodii or acanthodians is an extinct class of gnathostomes. They are currently considered to represent a paraphyletic grade of various fish lineages basal to extant Chondrichthyes, which includes living sharks, rays, and chimaeras. Acanthodians possess a mosaic of features shared with both osteichthyans and chondrichthyans. In general body shape, they were similar to modern sharks, but their epidermis was covered with tiny rhomboid platelets like the scales of holosteians.

Acanthodii

Danielle Dufault · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
spiny fishPBDB
Sits inside
GnathostomataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 173 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 259.857 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 438.6 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Silurian — about 111 of 681 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 491 of 681 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 55 of 681 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 24 of 681 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 681 occurrences442–436 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences436–429 Mya — about 2 occurrences429–423 Mya — about 24 occurrences423–416 Mya — about 130 occurrences416–410 Mya — about 59 occurrences410–404 Mya — about 51 occurrences404–397 Mya — about 69 occurrences397–391 Mya — about 86 occurrences391–384 Mya — about 85 occurrences384–378 Mya — about 58 occurrences378–371 Mya — about 10 occurrences371–365 Mya — about 12 occurrences365–358 Mya — about 15 occurrences358–352 Mya — about 5 occurrences352–345 Mya — about 5 occurrences345–339 Mya — about 7 occurrences339–332 Mya — about 9 occurrences332–326 Mya — about 5 occurrences326–319 Mya — about 4 occurrences319–313 Mya — about 7 occurrences313–306 Mya — about 2 occurrences306–300 Mya — about 10 occurrences300–293 Mya — about 17 occurrences293–287 Mya — about 5 occurrences287–281 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences281–274 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences274–268 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences268–261 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences261–255 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences255–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences432.9 Mya259.857 Mya442 Mya248 Mya

681 occurrences of Acanthodii on record, most of them in the Devonian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

681 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

181 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 57.54°N, 3.76°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 4.03°WDundee Flagstone — 57.00°N, 4.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.48°N, 3.12°WDundee Flagstone — 56.67°N, 2.77°WDundee Flagstone — 56.51°N, 2.91°WDundee Flagstone — 56.57°N, 2.73°WDundee Flagstone — 56.61°N, 3.00°WBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°ELepel — 53.07°N, 28.70°ELepel — 53.16°N, 30.80°ELepel — 53.32°N, 30.37°ELepel — 55.41°N, 27.19°EWater Canyon — 41.62°N, 111.66°WWater Canyon — 41.77°N, 111.75°WWater Canyon — 41.84°N, 111.59°WWater Canyon — 41.57°N, 111.97°WWater Canyon — 41.98°N, 111.09°WShanda Horizon — 54.28°N, 85.93°ESalairka Horizon — 54.28°N, 85.93°ERēzekne — 56.51°N, 27.33°EWindmill Limestone — 39.96°N, 116.58°WLudlow Bone Bed — 51.96°N, 3.74°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.00°N, 2.52°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.03°N, 2.63°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.54°N, 2.62°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.47°N, 2.73°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.27°N, 2.38°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.43°N, 3.01°WCatavi — 18.45°S, 64.80°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WRoad River — 63.33°N, 126.81°WJura — 55.19°N, 21.80°EJura — 55.29°N, 20.98°EJura — 55.24°N, 23.51°EPolotsk — 52.14°N, 27.28°EPolotsk — 51.88°N, 26.85°EPolotsk — 52.88°N, 26.86°EVrchlabi — 50.57°N, 15.39°EVrchlabi — 50.62°N, 15.60°EAztec Siltstone — 78.46°S, 158.84°EAztec Siltstone — 77.88°S, 159.61°EAztec Siltstone — 78.54°S, 158.43°EAztec Siltstone — 77.01°S, 161.77°ECavan Bluff Limestone — 35.01°S, 148.86°EBelovo Horizon — 54.28°N, 85.93°EOhesaare — 58.00°N, 22.02°EGauja — 58.01°N, 25.38°ESevernaya Zemlya — 79.50°N, 96.00°ENarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EWitpoort — 33.32°S, 26.54°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acanthodii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 157 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 138 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acanthodii and its relatives

Devonian

Where Acanthodii and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

1,949 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 323 sites for Acanthodii, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

183 references

Each of the 681 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 171 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Acanthodii

Credit
Danielle Dufault
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGnathostomata through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Owen 1846)