Birgeria

Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution, with fossil known from Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland. Birgeria existed throughout the entire Triassic period, from the very beginning just after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, up to the very end with its extinction during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.

Birgeria

Ghedoghedo · 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
Sits inside
BirgeriidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Palaeonisciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Palaeonisciformes

Time the record covers

At least 58 million years on record.

The record covers at least 251.1 Mya to 192.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 251.902 Mya to 184.2 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 137 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 23 of 137 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 12 of 137 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 100 of 137 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 137 occurrencesEarly Jurassic253–251 Mya — about 9 occurrences251–249 Mya — about 12 occurrences249–246 Mya — about 4 occurrences246–244 Mya — about 3 occurrences244–242 Mya — about 4 occurrences242–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences239–237 Mya — about 2 occurrences237–234 Mya — about 1 occurrence234–232 Mya — about 3 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 4 occurrences230–227 Mya — about 4 occurrences227–225 Mya — about 4 occurrences225–223 Mya — about 4 occurrences223–220 Mya — about 4 occurrences220–218 Mya — about 4 occurrences218–216 Mya — about 4 occurrences216–213 Mya — about 7 occurrences213–211 Mya — about 7 occurrences211–209 Mya — about 1 occurrence209–206 Mya — about 1 occurrence206–204 Mya — about 22 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 29 occurrences202–199 Mya — about 3 occurrences195–192 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences192–190 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences190–188 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences188–185 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences185–183 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251.1 Mya192.9 Mya253 Mya183 Mya

137 occurrences of Birgeria on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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

137 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

28 formations

Pardonet — 56.13°N, 123.08°WWestbury — 53.03°N, 0.81°WWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 51.93°N, 2.23°WWestbury — 50.72°N, 3.05°WWestbury — 55.05°N, 6.95°WWestbury — 51.55°N, 2.40°WWestbury — 51.82°N, 2.41°WWestbury — 51.18°N, 3.38°WTransitional Beds — 56.13°N, 123.08°WKongressfjellet — 78.27°N, 16.97°EKongressfjellet — 78.24°N, 17.21°EKongressfjellet — 78.25°N, 17.84°EKongressfjellet — 78.28°N, 17.63°EGrès de Mortinsart — 49.70°N, 5.66°EGrès de Mortinsart — 49.75°N, 5.79°ESticky Keep — 78.34°N, 16.30°ESticky Keep — 78.50°N, 22.04°ESticky Keep — 78.31°N, 16.63°EGrabfeld — 50.00°N, 10.62°EGrabfeld — 49.70°N, 10.43°EWordie Creek — 74.27°N, 21.00°WFalang — 24.88°N, 104.34°EFalang — 25.16°N, 104.79°EKössen — 46.62°N, 9.64°EVikinghøgda — 78.17°N, 18.00°EKössener Schichten — 48.13°N, 16.24°EGrès de Infralias — 48.01°N, 5.53°ELilstock — 51.60°N, 2.61°WWestbury Shales — 51.83°N, 2.41°WLudington — 56.13°N, 123.08°WGrès de Boisset — 46.91°N, 5.90°ESulphur Mountain — 54.53°N, 120.74°WFavret — 40.06°N, 117.56°WSables de Mortinsart — 49.71°N, 5.62°ERaibl — 47.28°N, 11.25°EMuschelkalk — 50.01°N, 11.62°EJilh — 26.39°N, 44.24°EKalapani — 30.39°N, 80.16°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Birgeria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Birgeria and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Birgeria and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

417 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 126 sites for Birgeria, 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

53 references

Each of the 137 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. 41 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 content2

Picture of Birgeria

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Birgeria stensioei · pimuz:T2183

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 itBirgeriidae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stensiö 1919