Channa

Channa is a genus of predatory fish in the family Channidae, commonly known as snakeheads, native to freshwater habitats in Asia. This genus contains about 50 scientifically described species. The genus has a wide natural distribution extending from Iraq in the west, to Indonesia and China in the east, and parts of Siberia in the Far East. A particularly high richness of species exists in Myanmar (Burma), Bangladesh and northeastern India, and many Channa species live nowhere else. In contrast, a few widespread species have been introduced to several regions outside their natural range, where they often become invasive. The large and medium-sized Channa species are among the most common staple food fish in several Asian countries, and they are extensively cultured. Apart from their importance as a food fish, snakeheads are consumed in some regions as a traditional medicine for wound healing and reducing postoperative pain and discomfort, and collected for the international aquarium pet trade.

Channa

George Chernilevsky · 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
ChannidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 13 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 14 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.0–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.7–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15.98 Mya3.6 Mya20.9 Mya2.1 Mya

14 occurrences of Channa on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

2 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°E

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The named rock units Channa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Channa and its relatives

Miocene

Where Channa and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

283 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Channa, 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

8 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 Channa

Credit
George Chernilevsky
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows 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 itChannidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scopoli 1770