Brychaetus

Brychaetus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine bonytongue fish known from the Late Cretaceous to the late Eocene of Europe, North America, and northern Africa.

Brychaetus

Fossildan · CC BY-SA 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
OsteoglossinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 11 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 11 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 8 of 11 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences68–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66 Mya37.71 Mya73 Mya33.1 Mya

11 occurrences of Brychaetus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

11 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

8 formations

Nanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WTuscahoma — 32.40°N, 88.69°WMénaka — 18.33°N, 2.00°ETeberemt, Tamaguélelt, Continental Terminal — 16.32°N, 2.77°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°ELondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°E

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The named rock units Brychaetus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brychaetus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Brychaetus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

362 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Brychaetus, 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

9 references

Each of the 11 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 content2

Picture of Brychaetus

Credit
Fossildan
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Palaeoart
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOsteoglossinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1845