Coccolepididae

Coccolepididae is an extinct family of ray-finned fish, known from the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, most of which were originally referred to the type genus Coccolepis. They had a widespread distribution, being found in North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe. They are mostly known from freshwater environments, though several species have been found in marine environments. They are morphologically conservative, and have poorly ossified endo and exoskeletons, which usually results in poor preservation. Historically, they have been classified as members "Palaeonisciformes”, a paraphyletic grouping of non-neopterygian fish, due to their plesiomorphic conservative morphology closely resembling those of many other groups of earlier ray-finned fish. Some recent authors have suggested that they may belong to the order Chondrostei as relatives of the Acipenseriformes.

Coccolepididae

Alexandronikos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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.

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 154.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences165.3 Mya154.8 Mya168.7 Mya142.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Coccolepididae on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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

2 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

Moskovoretskaya — 55.20°N, 38.78°EMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°W

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The named rock units Coccolepididae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Coccolepididae and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Coccolepididae and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Coccolepididae, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 content1

Picture of Coccolepididae

Credit
Alexandronikos
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coccolepididae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Berg 1940