Acrolepis

Acrolepis is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine & freshwater bony fish that lived from the Visean stage of the Carboniferous to the early Triassic epoch. It is a large piscivorous predatory fish in the acrolepid family, which occupied an apex predator niche in its locale. A. gigas was estimated to have grown up to 1.25 metres (4.1 ft) in length.

Acrolepis

DiBgd · 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
Sits inside
AcrolepididaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 159 million years on record.

The record covers at least 365.2 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 368.5 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 75 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 31 of 75 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 36 of 75 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 4 of 75 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 2 of 75 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 75 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 75 occurrences372–366 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences366–360 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences360–354 Mya — about 2 occurrences354–349 Mya — about 2 occurrences349–343 Mya — about 3 occurrences343–337 Mya — about 3 occurrences337–331 Mya — about 3 occurrences331–326 Mya — about 3 occurrences326–320 Mya — about 4 occurrences320–314 Mya — about 4 occurrences314–308 Mya — about 1 occurrence308–302 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences302–297 Mya — about 7 occurrences297–291 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences291–285 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences285–279 Mya — about 3 occurrences279–273 Mya — about 6 occurrences273–268 Mya — about 4 occurrences268–262 Mya — about 5 occurrences262–256 Mya — about 11 occurrences256–250 Mya — about 8 occurrences250–244 Mya — about 1 occurrence244–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences210–204 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences204–198 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences365.2 Mya205.7 Mya372 Mya198 Mya

75 occurrences of Acrolepis on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

75 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

33 formations

Gastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.65°N, 2.65°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.58°N, 2.43°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.70°N, 2.30°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.72°N, 2.08°WRaisby — 54.63°N, 1.63°WRaisby — 54.69°N, 1.52°WRaisby — 55.05°N, 1.44°WKupferschiefer — 52.23°N, 7.96°EKupferschiefer — 50.98°N, 10.01°ESlaný — 49.84°N, 13.31°ESlaný — 50.21°N, 13.68°ESlaný — 50.22°N, 14.00°ESlaný — 50.22°N, 13.88°ESlaný — 49.72°N, 13.24°EIntinsky — 58.26°N, 56.26°EIntinsky — 59.84°N, 56.52°EZechstein — 51.23°N, 8.89°EZechstein — 51.49°N, 6.55°EZechstein — 54.25°N, 7.67°EZechstein — 51.52°N, 6.56°EBaitugan — 55.89°N, 53.34°ELower Limestone — 55.82°N, 4.37°WLower Limestone — 55.75°N, 4.63°WIsheevo — 55.04°N, 46.78°EBaytugan — 56.01°N, 52.71°EPendleside Limestones — 53.59°N, 1.95°WKnocklofty — 42.89°S, 147.27°EKnocklofty — 43.06°S, 147.32°EFeltrim — 53.43°N, 6.20°WSpray River — 51.26°N, 115.85°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°WGarber Sandstone — 34.53°N, 98.89°WKladno — 50.08°N, 13.70°ESyřenov — 50.37°N, 15.01°EWilkie Brook ? — 45.83°N, 61.93°WHorton Bluff — 45.11°N, 64.22°WSnakes Bight — 46.76°N, 53.37°WAlbert — 45.88°N, 64.67°WLower Dwyka Shales — 28.77°S, 17.63°EUpper Limestone — 55.73°N, 4.03°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acrolepis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acrolepis and its relatives

Permian

Where Acrolepis and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

365 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 66 sites for Acrolepis, and this reads all 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

35 references

Each of the 75 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. 23 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 content2

Picture of Acrolepis

Credit
DiBgd
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
Coryphaenoides acrolepis · UWFC:ADULT COLLECTION:UW 042216

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 itAcrolepididae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1833