Characidae

Characidae, the characids, is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish belonging to the order Characiformes. They are found throughout much of Central and South America, including such major waterways as the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. These fish vary in length; many are less than 3 cm (1.2 in).

Characidae

Cláudio Dias Timm · CC BY 2.0 · 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
CharacoideiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Characiformes

Time the record covers

At least 62 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 38 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 38 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 38 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesMiocene — about 20 of 38 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 38 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 38 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 6 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence66 Mya3.6 Mya74 Mya0 Mya

38 occurrences of Characidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

38 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

17 formations

Nkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.22°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.14°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WNachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ELusso Beds — 0.03°N, 29.62°EMuñani — 15.73°S, 70.17°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WNyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°EItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WPui Beds — 45.49°N, 23.09°EEl Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WCastilletes — 11.95°N, 71.27°WWare — 11.85°N, 71.32°WPozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°W

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The named rock units Characidae 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.

Characidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Characidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

716 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Characidae, 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

23 references

Each of the 38 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. 11 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 content1

Picture of Characidae

Credit
Cláudio Dias Timm
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCharacoidei through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.