Cyclurus

Cyclurus is an extinct genus of freshwater amiid ray-finned fish known from the Late Cretaceous to the Early Oligocene across much of the Northern Hemisphere. It is thought to be the closest relative of the extant bowfins in the genus Amia, although species of Cyclurus were significantly smaller in size compared to Amia.

Cyclurus

H. Zell · CC BY 3.0 · 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
AmiinaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, piscivorePBDB, for Amiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Amiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Amiiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Amiinae

Time the record covers

At least 73 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 20 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 16.9 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 138 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 113 of 138 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 9 of 138 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 13 of 138 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 138 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 138 occurrencesMiocene102–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 6 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 6 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 6 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 29 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 41 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 24 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences62–59 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences93.9 Mya20 Mya102 Mya15 Mya

138 occurrences of Cyclurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

138 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

22 formations

Hell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.18°N, 103.84°WHell Creek — 46.14°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WFerris — 41.96°N, 106.89°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.28°N, 104.53°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WScollard — 54.79°N, 115.46°WScollard — 52.33°N, 113.12°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EMedicine Bow — 41.80°N, 107.00°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°EKanguk — 79.39°N, 92.18°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WJibou — 47.26°N, 23.26°EFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WWilliams Fork — 39.93°N, 108.82°WMost — 50.57°N, 13.73°EGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WXiawuanpu — 27.62°N, 112.23°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cyclurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cyclurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Cyclurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

768 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 137 sites for Cyclurus, 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

33 references

Each of the 138 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. 21 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 Cyclurus

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Oligodon cyclurus · UMMZ:Herps:184510

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

Everything alive alongside itAmiinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1839