Amia

Amia, commonly called bowfin, is a genus of ray-finned fish related to gars in the infraclass Holostei. They are regarded as taxonomic relicts, being the sole surviving species of the order Amiiformes and clade Halecomorphi, which dates from the Triassic to the Eocene, persisting to the present. There are two living species in Amia, Amia calva and Amia ocellicauda, and a number of extinct species which have been described from the fossil record.

Amia

Original uploader was Stan Shebs at commons.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
bowfinPBDB
Sits inside
AmiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, piscivorePBDB, for Amiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Amiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Amiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 132 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 137.05 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 140 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 58 of 140 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 140 occurrencesEocene — about 45 of 140 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 140 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 140 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 140 occurrencesPleistocene — about 7 of 140 occurrences140–135 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences135–130 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–84 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–70 Mya — about 20 occurrences70–65 Mya — about 31 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 5 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 6 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 26 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 5 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 5 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 4 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–9.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.3–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences132.6 Mya11.7 ka140 Mya0 Mya

140 occurrences of Amia 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

140 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

46 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.98°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.58°N, 106.30°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.55°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.40°WWillwood — 44.61°N, 108.50°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.89°WWillwood — 44.39°N, 108.71°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.78°WWillwood — 44.67°N, 108.80°WWillwood — 44.68°N, 108.75°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 108.91°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WGreen River — 42.13°N, 110.13°WGreen River — 42.17°N, 109.42°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.79°N, 100.07°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.80°N, 104.62°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WGolden Valley — 46.90°N, 102.80°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WFrenchman — 49.40°N, 107.40°WMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WSt. Marys — 38.32°N, 76.43°WSt. Marys — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.15°N, 110.04°WTienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°EUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WCalcaire de Saint-Ouen — 49.13°N, 3.35°EInbeceten — 15.05°N, 6.03°ESt. Mary River — 49.91°N, 112.99°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

2,315 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 119 sites for Amia, 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

73 references

Each of the 140 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. 61 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 Amia

Credit
Original uploader was Stan Shebs at commons.wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Amia calva · FMNH:Fishes:11068

3D model

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

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 itAmiidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1766