Ceratodus

Ceratodus is an extinct genus of freshwater lungfish that was found worldwide during the Mesozoic Era. It has been described as a "catch all", and a "form genus" used to refer to the remains, typically toothplates, of a variety of lungfish belonging to the extinct family Ceratodontidae. Fossil evidence dates back to the Early Triassic. A wide range of fossil species from different time periods have been found around the world in places such as the United States, Argentina, Greenland, England, Germany, Egypt, Madagascar, China, and Australia. Ceratodus is believed to have become extinct sometime around the beginning of the Eocene Epoch.

Ceratodus

Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) · 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
CeratodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
lagoonal,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Dipnoi

Time the record covers

At least 191 million years on record.

The record covers at least 250.8 Mya to 59.24 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 251.902 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 179 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 6 of 179 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 17 of 179 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 44 of 179 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 179 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 3 of 179 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 30 of 179 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 34 of 179 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 40 of 179 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 179 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 179 occurrences256–249 Mya — about 4 occurrences249–242 Mya — about 13 occurrences242–235 Mya — about 8 occurrences235–228 Mya — about 4 occurrences228–221 Mya — about 5 occurrences221–214 Mya — about 5 occurrences214–207 Mya — about 6 occurrences207–199 Mya — about 22 occurrences199–192 Mya — about 2 occurrences171–164 Mya — about 2 occurrences164–157 Mya — about 1 occurrence157–150 Mya — about 10 occurrences150–143 Mya — about 19 occurrences143–136 Mya — about 2 occurrences136–129 Mya — about 3 occurrences129–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–115 Mya — about 11 occurrences115–108 Mya — about 10 occurrences108–101 Mya — about 7 occurrences101–93 Mya — about 20 occurrences93–86 Mya — about 3 occurrences86–79 Mya — about 5 occurrences79–72 Mya — about 5 occurrences72–65 Mya — about 7 occurrences65–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences250.8 Mya59.24 Mya256 Mya44 Mya

179 occurrences of Ceratodus 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

179 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

70 formations

Morrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 36.92°N, 102.98°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WMorrison — 38.45°N, 105.40°WMorrison — 40.30°N, 108.57°WMorrison — 40.27°N, 108.68°WCloverly — 44.96°N, 108.30°WCloverly — 45.26°N, 108.41°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WCloverly — 45.19°N, 108.80°WCloverly — 45.80°N, 109.80°WCloverly — 45.53°N, 108.74°WCloverly — 45.10°N, 106.90°WDonguz — 51.55°N, 55.36°EDonguz — 52.53°N, 53.50°EDonguz — 51.46°N, 55.18°EDonguz — 51.36°N, 55.31°EWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 51.82°N, 2.41°WExter — 48.56°N, 9.07°EExter — 48.55°N, 9.07°EExter — 51.57°N, 9.05°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.53°N, 9.05°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.15°N, 8.18°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.50°N, 9.57°EContinental Intercalaire — 21.63°N, 1.98°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.40°N, 7.82°EGriman Creek — 29.46°S, 147.96°EGriman Creek — 29.45°S, 147.78°EGriman Creek — 29.47°S, 147.77°EKlettgau — 47.50°N, 8.02°EKlettgau — 47.71°N, 8.45°ECedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.57°WCedar Mountain — 38.83°N, 109.27°WQuseir — 25.25°N, 30.58°EQuseir — 25.49°N, 29.52°EQuseir — 25.64°N, 29.39°EKnocklofty — 42.79°S, 147.28°EKnocklofty — 43.08°S, 147.28°EKnocklofty — 42.80°S, 147.52°ELöwenstein — 49.03°N, 8.97°EDukamaje — 15.41°N, 5.73°EDukamaje — 15.47°N, 6.26°EContinental Intercalaire — 20.86°N, 0.21°WWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°EChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.29°N, 1.58°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.33°N, 2.08°WElliot — 29.13°S, 27.33°EBukobay — 51.44°N, 55.52°EHassberge — 49.84°N, 10.48°EMaleri — 19.22°N, 79.58°EMaleri — 18.80°N, 79.78°ENaturita — 37.80°N, 111.50°WArundel Clay — 39.07°N, 76.87°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ceratodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 46 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 21 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceratodus and its relatives

Late Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

1,131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 145 sites for Ceratodus, 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

103 references

Each of the 179 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. 91 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 Ceratodus

Credit
Heinrich Harder (1858-1935)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itCeratodontidae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1838