Anomoeodus

Anomoeodus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Pycnodontidae. This genus primarily lived during the mid-to-late Cretaceous period, ranging from the Albian to the very end of the Maastrichtian age, and possibly into the Danian. The first fossils of Anomoeodus were described by Louis Agassiz in 1833, although they were described under Pycnodus. Some studies have recovered it as a wastebasket taxon.

Anomoeodus

Fernand Priem · 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
PycnodontidaePBDB
Diet
durophage, carnivorePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 61.66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 64 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 7 of 64 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 56 of 64 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 64 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–119 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 1 occurrence111–108 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 1 occurrence100–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 5 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 3 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 1 occurrence85–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 7 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 7 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 7 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 6 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 5 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 5 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences121.4 Mya66 Mya145 Mya60 Mya

64 occurrences of Anomoeodus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

64 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

29 formations

Tar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WTar Heel — 34.61°N, 78.60°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EKhodzhakul — 40.60°N, 71.83°ENavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WEutaw — 33.70°N, 88.50°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WAkrabou — 31.86°N, 4.88°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.79°EMaastricht — 50.83°N, 5.68°EBlufftown — 32.16°N, 85.03°WCampanien 1-2 — 45.75°N, 0.47°WLa Huérguina — 40.22°N, 1.98°WRipley — 35.23°N, 88.61°WAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°ECusseta — 32.14°N, 84.95°WDonoho Creek — 34.06°N, 79.53°WNew Egypt — 39.80°N, 75.09°WPaluxy — 31.70°N, 98.51°WMerchantville — 39.95°N, 74.99°WValdenoceda — 42.90°N, 3.30°WHolly Creek — 34.09°N, 93.88°WSao Khua — 17.10°N, 102.49°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anomoeodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anomoeodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

996 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 60 sites for Anomoeodus, 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

48 references

Each of the 64 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. 36 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 content1

Picture of Anomoeodus

Credit
Fernand Priem
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anomoeodus 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 itPycnodontidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Forir 1887