Ameiurus
Ameiurus is a genus of catfishes in the family Ictaluridae. It contains the three common types of bullhead catfish found in waters of the United States, the black bullhead, the brown bullhead, and the yellow bullhead, as well as other species, such as the white catfish, which are not typically called "bullheads".

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
- SiluridaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Siluriformes
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Siluriformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Siluriformes
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Siluriformes
Time the record covers
At least 12 million years on record.
The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.
14 occurrences of Ameiurus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
14 occurrences- Miocene50%
- Pleistocene36%
- Holocene14%
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
4 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Ameiurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ameiurus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Ameiurus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
272 taxa- Lepisosteus8 sites
- Alligator mississippiensis6 sites
- Aves4 sites
- Amia calva3 sites
- Archosargus probatocephalus3 sites
- Esox3 sites
- Kinosternon3 sites
- Lepomis3 sites
- Lepomis microlophus3 sites
- Mugil3 sites
- Nerodia3 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus3 sites
- Palaeomerycidae3 sites
- Paramylodon harlani3 sites
- Pomoxis3 sites
- Prosthennops3 sites
- Testudo3 sites
- Trionyx3 sites
- Aenocyon dirus2 sites
- Aepycamelus2 sites
- Agkistrodon2 sites
- Alligator2 sites
- Amphiuma2 sites
- Antilocapridae2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Ameiurus, 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
10 references- Early Holocene Vertebrate Paleontology2
- Vertebrate Paleontology2
- Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes from the early Pleistocene Leisey Shell Pit local fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida2
- Final report covering the period from March 4, 1939 ro September 30, 1941 for the state-wide paleontologic-mineralogic survey in Texas2
- A New Fossil Ictalurid Catfish from the Miocene Middle Member of the Truckee Formation, Nevada1
- Brackish and Non-Marine Miocene in Southeastern Texas1
- The eighth quarterly report covering the quarter ending March 31, 1941 for the state-wide paleontologic-mineralogic survey in Texas1
- The ninth quarterly report covering the quarter ending June 30, 1941 for the state-wide paleontologic-mineralogic survey in Texas1
- The seventh quarterly report covering the quarter ending December 31, 1940 for the state-wide paleontologic-mineralogic survey in Texas1
- Contributions to the Snake Creek Fauna with notes upon the Pleistocene of western Nebraska, American Museum Expedition of 19161
Each of the 14 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. 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 Ameiurus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Ameiurus natalis · inhs:fish:94569
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Ameiurus”
- 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 itSiluridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1820