Ampheristus

Ampheristus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It was a basal or stem member of the family Ophidiidae, which contains modern cusk-eels. Fossils are known from worldwide from the Late Cretaceous to the late Paleogene, making it a rather successful survivor of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

No picture of Ampheristus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Ampheristus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OphidiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, parasitePBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ophidiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 42.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 39.1 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 17 of 18 occurrencesEocene62–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences59.24 Mya42.6 Mya62.2 Mya38.6 Mya

18 occurrences of Ampheristus on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

18 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

7 formations

Waihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ENanjemoy — 38.42°N, 77.00°WNanjemoy — 37.75°N, 77.33°WPorters Creek — 32.02°N, 87.42°WDonzacq Marl — 43.75°N, 0.84°WMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WBashi — 31.93°N, 87.87°W

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The named rock units Ampheristus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ampheristus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Ampheristus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

401 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Ampheristus, 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

8 references

Each of the 18 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 content0

No picture of Ampheristus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Ampheristus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Ampheristus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itOphidiidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Konig 1825