Bagre marinus

The gafftopsail catfish is a species of marine catfish found in the waters of the western central Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It has long, venomous spines which can cause painful wounds. It feeds on crustaceans and other fish. The male of the species fertilizes the eggs of the female, and broods them in his mouth until they hatch. The gafftopsail feeds throughout the water column. This fish is a common catch in the Southeastern US, although it may be found as far north as New York. They are considered strong fighters by anglers. They are taken from piers, jetties, reefs, and the surf, as well as bottom fishing or flats fishing. They are caught with hard lures as well as soft plastics, cut bait, and live or dead shrimp. Some fishermen use traps for catfish, a method regulated by some states.

Bagre marinus

Uncredited · CC BY 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
BagrePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Siluriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Siluriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Siluriformes
Environment
marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Ariidae

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.5–1.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.1–669 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.333 Mya1.8 Mya12.1 Mya274 ka

4 occurrences of Bagre marinus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

4 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

4 formations

Urumaco — 11.25°N, 70.27°WCerro Negro — 10.82°N, 64.18°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°W

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The named rock units Bagre marinus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Bagre marinus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Bagre marinus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

222 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Bagre marinus, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 Bagre marinus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bagre marinus 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 itBagre through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Mitchill 1815)