Chauliodus

A viperfish is any species of the genus Chauliodus, marine fish inhabiting the twilight or mesopelagic zone. Viperfish are at most around 30 cm (12 in), and are characterized by silvery scales, long needle-like teeth and photophores along the ventral side of their body.

Chauliodus

NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022 · 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
StomiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Stomiiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Stomiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Stomiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 1.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 13 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.9–9.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.3–8.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences8.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11.63 Mya1.4 Mya16.5 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Chauliodus 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

17 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

5 formations

Modelo — 34.15°N, 118.47°WModelo — 34.14°N, 118.49°WModelo — 34.13°N, 118.42°WModelo — 34.34°N, 118.64°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WMonterey — 33.71°N, 118.28°WValmonte — 33.78°N, 118.33°WKurasi — 47.87°N, 142.10°E"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Chauliodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chauliodus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Chauliodus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

230 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Chauliodus, 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

10 references

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 Chauliodus

Credit
NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Chauliodus sloani · tcwc:ichthyology:16971.05

3D model

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

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 itStomiidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schneider 1801