Callorhinchus

Callorhinchus, the plough-nosed chimaeras or elephantfish, are the only living genus in the family Callorhinchidae. A few extinct genera only known from fossil remains are recognized. Callorhinchus spp. are similar in form and habits to other chimaeras, but are distinguished by the presence of an elongated, flexible, fleshy snout, with a vague resemblance to a ploughshare. They are only found in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere along the ocean bottom on muddy and sandy substrates. They filter feed, with small shellfish making up the bulk of their diet. The plough-nosed chimaera lays eggs on the ocean floor that hatch at around 8 months. They are currently not a target of conservation efforts; however, they may be susceptible to overfishing and trawling.

Callorhinchus

fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 · GFDL 1.2 · 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
CallorhinchidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chimaeriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Chimaeriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chimaeriformes

Time the record covers

At least 83 million years on record.

The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 85.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 14 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 14 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 14 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.8–2.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.9–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences83.6 Mya11.7 ka87 Mya0 Mya

14 occurrences of Callorhinchus 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

14 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

6 formations

Horcón — 32.70°S, 71.46°WLa Meseta — 64.26°S, 56.68°WLa Meseta — 64.22°S, 56.64°WNavidad — 33.91°S, 71.85°WClayton — 33.50°N, 88.79°WLoreto — 53.14°S, 71.06°WLas Escobas — 35.28°S, 57.22°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Callorhinchus 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.

Callorhinchus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Callorhinchus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

86 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Callorhinchus, 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 14 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 Callorhinchus

Credit
fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8
Licence
GFDL 1.2
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Callorhinchus callorynchus · cas:su

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 itCallorhinchidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lacépède 1798