Catostomus
Catostomus is a genus of fish belonging to the family Catostomidae, commonly known as suckers. This genus of fish usually lives in freshwater basins. Most members of the genus are native to North America, but C. catostomus is also found in Russia. A majority of species inhabit western North America, with only C. catostomus, C. commersonii, and C. utawana being found in eastern North America.

USFWS · Public Domain · 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
- CatostomidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Cypriniformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Cypriniformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Cypriniformes
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Cypriniformes
Time the record covers
At least 2.5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.
17 occurrences of Catostomus 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
17 occurrences- Pliocene27%
- Pleistocene50%
- Holocene24%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Catostomus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Catostomus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Catostomus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
439 taxa- Anatidae4 sites
- Chasmistes4 sites
- Gila4 sites
- Ondatra zibethicus4 sites
- Ptychocheilus4 sites
- Branta canadensis3 sites
- Ictalurus3 sites
- Lepomis3 sites
- Lepus americanus3 sites
- Microtus pennsylvanicus3 sites
- Oncorhynchus3 sites
- Peromyscus3 sites
- Rana3 sites
- Rana pipiens3 sites
- Accipitridae2 sites
- Aenocyon dirus2 sites
- Alces alces2 sites
- Anguilla2 sites
- Anura2 sites
- Aplodinotus grunniens2 sites
- Aythya2 sites
- Bonasa umbellus2 sites
- Bubo virginianus2 sites
- Bufo2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Catostomus, 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
11 references- After Hopewell in Southern Québec3
- Two Pliocene (Blancan) vertebrate faunas from Douglas County, Nevada3
- Biogeography of the Pliocene and Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Northeastern California and their temporal significance to the development of the Modoc Plateau and Klamath Mountain Region2
- The Pleistocene vertebrates of Michigan2
- The mid-Irvingtonian Fairmead Landfill fossil site, Madera County Paleontology Collection, and Fossil Discovery Center of Madera County, California1
- Declining foraging returns from an inexhaustible resource? Abundance indices and beluga whaling in the western Canadian Arctic1
- Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates in the lower peninsula of Michigan1
- Pliocene Molluscs and Fishes from Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada1
- The Clark's Cave bone deposit and the Late Pleistocene paleoecology of the central Appalachian Mountains of Virginia1
- Martin, 19731
- Geology and paleontology of a late Pleistocene basin in southwest kansas1
Each of the 17 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 content3
Picture of Catostomus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- USFWS
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- Bell Museum fishes
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Phenacobius catostomus · JFBM:Fishes:41128
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Catostomus”
- 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 itCatostomidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.