Brychaetus muelleri

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 muelleri

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
BrychaetusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 59.24 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 4 of 5 occurrencesEocene59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences59.7 Mya47.6 Mya

5 occurrences of Brychaetus muelleri 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

5 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

Nanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WTuscahoma — 32.40°N, 88.69°WLondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°E

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The named rock units Brychaetus muelleri has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brychaetus muelleri and its relatives

Eocene

Where Brychaetus muelleri and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

242 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Brychaetus muelleri, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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 muelleri

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 itBrychaetus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodward 1901