Cottidae

The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. Following major taxonomic revisions, it contains about 118 species in 18 genera, the vast majority of which are either restricted to freshwater habitats or are amphidromous. They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.

Cottidae

Painting by Ellen Edmonson · 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
CottalesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Perciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Perciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Perciformes

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 58 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 58 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 58 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 58 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 58 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 58 occurrencesPleistocene — about 36 of 58 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 38 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

58 occurrences of Cottidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

58 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

15 formations

Timms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WPort Orford — 42.81°N, 124.53°WPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.56°WMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°EYokosuka — 35.26°N, 139.72°EAlzey — 49.83°N, 7.72°EMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WOtekaike Limestone — 44.79°S, 170.51°ELindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°EWaioha Shellbeds — 34.50°S, 172.96°ENiguel — 33.64°N, 117.89°WBoom — 51.12°N, 4.36°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cottidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cottidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cottidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,395 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Cottidae, 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

25 references

Each of the 58 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. 13 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 content2

Picture of Cottidae

Credit
Painting by Ellen Edmonson
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-ShareAlike
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itCottales through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.