Aplodinotus grunniens

The freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, is a fish endemic to North and Central America. It is the only species in the genus Aplodinotus, and is a member of the family Sciaenidae. It is the only North American member of the group that inhabits freshwater for its entire life. Its generic name, Aplodinotus, comes from Greek meaning "single back", and the specific epithet, grunniens, comes from a Latin word meaning "grunting". It is given to it because of the grunting noise that mature males make. This noise comes from a special set of muscles within the body cavity that vibrate against the swim bladder. The purpose of the grunting is unknown, but due to it being present in only mature males and during the spawning season, it is assumed to be linked to spawning.

Aplodinotus grunniens

Drawing by Dunana Raver · 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
Also called
freshwater drumPBDB
Sits inside
AplodinotusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

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 16.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 8 occurrencesPleistocene17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.5–9.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences560 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences12.5 Mya11.7 ka16.8 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Aplodinotus grunniens on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

8 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

3 formations

Valentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°W

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The named rock units Aplodinotus grunniens 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.

Aplodinotus grunniens and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aplodinotus grunniens and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

418 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Aplodinotus grunniens, 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 8 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 content1

Picture of Aplodinotus grunniens

Credit
Drawing by Dunana Raver
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aplodinotus grunniens was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAplodinotus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1819