Acipenser

Acipenser is a genus of sturgeons, containing three species native to freshwater and estuarine systems of eastern North America and Europe. It is the type genus of the family Acipenseridae and the order Acipenseriformes.

Acipenser

Pierre André · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
sturgeonPBDB
Sits inside
AcipenseridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acipenseriformes

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 65 of 110 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 8 of 110 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 9 of 110 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 110 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 110 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 110 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 110 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 8 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 8 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 8 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 11 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 14 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 13 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 5 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–57 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

110 occurrences of Acipenser on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

110 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

30 formations

Dinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 46.19°N, 103.40°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 41.58°N, 108.65°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.53°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°EGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°EKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WTulare — 37.73°N, 121.55°WBlackheath Beds — 51.43°N, 0.15°EBreda — 52.15°N, 6.61°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acipenser has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acipenser and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Acipenser and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,179 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 106 sites for Acipenser, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

54 references

Each of the 110 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. 42 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 content3

Picture of Acipenser

Credit
Pierre André
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Acipenser stellatus · FMNH:Fishes:87365

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itAcipenseridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758