Colosteidae

Colosteidae is a family of stegocephalians that lived in the Carboniferous period. They possessed a variety of characteristics from different tetrapod or stem-tetrapod groups, which made them historically difficult to classify. They are now considered to be part of a lineage intermediate between the earliest Devonian terrestrial vertebrates, and the different groups ancestral to all modern tetrapods, such as temnospondyls and reptiliomorphs.

Colosteidae

Nobu Tamura · 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.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
TetrapodaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 26 million years on record.

The record covers at least 335.9 Mya to 309.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 346.7 Mya to 306 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 16 of 16 occurrencesCarboniferous348–346 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences346–345 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences345–343 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences343–342 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences342–340 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences340–339 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences339–338 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences338–336 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences336–335 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences335–333 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences333–332 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences331–329 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences329–328 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences328–326 Mya — about 1 occurrence326–325 Mya — about 2 occurrences325–324 Mya — about 2 occurrences324–322 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences322–321 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences321–319 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences319–318 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences318–316 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences316–315 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences314–312 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–309 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 1 occurrence308–307 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences307–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335.9 Mya309.8 Mya347.5 Mya305.2 Mya

16 occurrences of Colosteidae on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

16 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

8 formations

St. Louis — 41.32°N, 92.33°WKinkaid — 37.55°N, 88.97°WBluefield — 39.57°N, 79.85°WGilmerton Ironstone — 55.83°N, 3.13°WCoolbaun Formation — 52.81°N, 7.20°WHinton — 37.66°N, 80.88°WPoint Edward — 46.17°N, 60.27°WPomquet — 46.55°N, 61.03°W

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The named rock units Colosteidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Colosteidae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Colosteidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

79 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Colosteidae, 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

13 references

Each of the 16 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. 1 further reference is 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 Colosteidae

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

No 3D scan of Colosteidae was found in Sketchfab.

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 itTetrapoda through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1875