Cosmoptychius

Cosmoptychius is an extinct genus of freshwater and estuarine ray-finned fish that lived during the Mississippian epoch. It contains a single species, C. striatus from the Visean of Scotland. It has a wide stratigraphic range in the Wardie Shale, with many specimens known.

Cosmoptychius

Ramsay Traquair · 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
CosmoptychiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Palaeonisciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Palaeonisciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Palaeonisciformes

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 335.9 Mya to 323.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 21 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 21 of 21 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 21 occurrences360–358 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences358–356 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences356–354 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences354–352 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences352–350 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences350–348 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences348–346 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences346–343 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences343–341 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences341–339 Mya — about 3 occurrences339–337 Mya — about 8 occurrences337–335 Mya — about 5 occurrences335–333 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences333–331 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences331–329 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences329–327 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences327–325 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences325–323 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences323–321 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences321–318 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences318–316 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences316–314 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences314–312 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences312–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–308 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308–306 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences306–304 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences304–302 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335.9 Mya323.4 Mya360 Mya298 Mya

21 occurrences of Cosmoptychius 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

21 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

6 formations

Gullane — 56.04°N, 2.83°WGullane — 55.96°N, 3.24°WGullane — 55.97°N, 3.25°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.88°N, 3.17°WCalciferous Sandstone — 56.06°N, 3.23°WEast Kirkton Limestone — 55.90°N, 3.62°WTyne limestone — 55.11°N, 2.98°WAnstruther — 56.06°N, 3.42°W

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The named rock units Cosmoptychius 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.

Cosmoptychius and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Cosmoptychius and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

56 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Cosmoptychius, 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

7 references

Each of the 21 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Cosmoptychius

Credit
Ramsay Traquair
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cosmoptychius 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 itCosmoptychiidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Traquair 1877