Congridae

The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden. The family includes over 220 species in 32 genera.

Congridae

Chepry 💬 ( Andrzej Barabasz ) 📷 🇵🇱 · 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
Also called
conger eelPBDB
Sits inside
AnguilliformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Anguilliformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Anguilliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Anguilliformes

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 499 occurrencesPaleocene — about 9 of 499 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 177 of 499 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 60 of 499 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 176 of 499 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 33 of 499 occurrencesPleistocene — about 42 of 499 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 7 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 8 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 13 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 19 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 23 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 19 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 30 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 31 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 16 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 12 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 8 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 30 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 20 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 16 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 30 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 52 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 23 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 12 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 14 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 15 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 24 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 25 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 39 occurrences59.24 Mya129 ka67 Mya0 Mya

499 occurrences of Congridae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

499 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

88 formations

Mount Harris — 44.20°S, 170.71°EMount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.21°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.14°S, 170.94°EMount Harris — 45.13°S, 170.96°EMount Harris — 44.30°S, 170.99°EMount Harris — 44.49°S, 171.01°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°ECook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.51°WCook Mountain — 30.61°N, 96.57°WCook Mountain — 31.33°N, 95.52°WCook Mountain — 32.03°N, 88.70°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.18°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.90°N, 88.69°WMoodys Branch — 31.89°N, 88.39°WWaihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°EWaihao Greensand — 44.80°S, 170.96°EYazoo — 31.66°N, 92.90°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WGatun — 9.36°N, 79.84°WNavidad — 33.95°S, 71.87°WNavidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°WBashi — 32.35°N, 88.68°WBashi — 31.93°N, 87.87°WSouthburn Sand — 44.42°S, 170.89°ESouthburn Sand — 44.30°S, 171.00°EStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WStone City — 30.67°N, 96.56°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 37.75°N, 77.33°WNanjemoy — 38.72°N, 76.93°WNanjemoy — 38.42°N, 77.00°WMiretrain Marl — 43.56°N, 1.11°WPiney Point — 37.61°N, 76.76°WRosefield — 31.89°N, 92.00°WPort Campbell Limestone — 37.72°S, 141.93°EPort Campbell Limestone — 38.62°S, 142.98°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°ERifle Butts — 45.08°S, 170.95°ERifle Butts — 45.12°S, 170.93°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°EChatton — 46.12°S, 168.79°EGutingkeng — 23.00°N, 120.42°EGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°E“upper” Lisbon — 31.82°N, 88.24°WWeches — 28.96°N, 98.48°WWeches — 31.22°N, 96.04°WCantaure — 11.97°N, 70.02°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Congridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 64 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 225 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Congridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Congridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,348 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 252 sites for Congridae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

89 references

Each of the 499 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. 77 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 Congridae

Credit
Chepry 💬 ( Andrzej Barabasz ) 📷 🇵🇱
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Congridae 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 itAnguilliformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kaup 1856