Cynodontidae

Cynodontidae, from Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn), meaning "dog", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth", also known as dogtooth characins or vampire tetras, are a family of predatory, characiform freshwater fishes from South America. This group is not very diverse, and includes only three genera and eight species. The largest species in this family ranges up to 117 cm (3.84 ft).

Cynodontidae

Whaldener Endo · CC0 · 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
CharacoideiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Characiformes

Time the record covers

At least 34 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Eocene — about 4 of 28 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 10 of 28 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 28 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 28 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 28 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.6–8.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.0–6.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.4–4.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.8–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–1.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences37.71 Mya3.6 Mya49 Mya1.7 Mya

28 occurrences of Cynodontidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

28 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

7 formations

Pozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WPozo — 7.34°S, 74.95°WPozo — 6.57°S, 76.27°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WWare — 11.85°N, 71.32°WChambira — 7.32°S, 74.93°WChambira — 7.35°S, 74.96°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WLa Victoria — 3.33°N, 75.15°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.14°W

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The named rock units Cynodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cynodontidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cynodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

399 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Cynodontidae, 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

6 references

Each of the 28 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. 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 Cynodontidae

Credit
Whaldener Endo
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cynodontidae 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 itCharacoidei through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.