Diaphus holti
Diaphus holti, the Small lanternfish, is a species of lanternfish found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This species grows to a length of 7.0 centimetres (2.8 in) SL.

Dr Tony Ayling · CC BY-SA 1.0 · 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
- small lantern fishPBDB
- Sits inside
- DiaphusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Time the record covers
At least 7.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
21 occurrences of Diaphus holti on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
21 occurrences- Miocene38%
- Pliocene24%
- Pleistocene29%
- Holocene10%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Diaphus holti has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Diaphus holti and its relatives
MioceneWhere Diaphus holti and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
364 taxa- Lobianchia dofleini14 sites
- Gadiculus argenteus12 sites
- Hygophum11 sites
- Notoscopelus elongatus11 sites
- Scopelopsis pliocenicus11 sites
- Ceratoscopelus maderensis10 sites
- Maurolicus muelleri10 sites
- Benthosema glaciale9 sites
- Deltentosteus9 sites
- Lesueurigobius9 sites
- Notoscopelus resplendens9 sites
- Diaphus cavallonis8 sites
- Diaphus rafinesquii8 sites
- Diaphus splendidus8 sites
- Diaphus taaningi8 sites
- Hygophum benoiti8 sites
- Lampanyctus crocodilus8 sites
- Myctophum punctatum8 sites
- Gobius7 sites
- Myctophum7 sites
- Cepola6 sites
- Dentex6 sites
- Micromesistius poutassou6 sites
- Otolithus labiatus6 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Diaphus holti, 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
11 references- Tortonian teleost otoliths from northern Italy: taxonomic synthesis and stratigraphic significance4
- Pleistocene marine fish invasions and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the eastern Mediterranean3
- First Evidence of Lanternfishes from the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) of Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago: NE Atlantic Ocean): Paleoecology and Paleobiodiversity2
- Tortonian fish otoliths from turbiditic deposits in Northern Italy: Taxonomic and stratigraphic significance2
- Paleobathymetric interpretation of the fish otoliths from the lower - middle quaternary deposits of Kephallonia and Zakynthos islands (Ionian Sea, Western Greece)2
- Otoliths from the Middle to Upper Miocene of the Gavdos Island (South Greece)2
- Données récentes sur Les téléostéens du Miocène et du Pliocéne d'Italie2
- Paleobathymetry of a Late Pliocene Voutes coast (Heraklion basin, Crete)1
- A small fossil fish fauna, rich in Chlamydoselachus teeth, from the Late Pliocene of Tuscany (Siena, central Italy)1
- Pleistocene fish otoliths from the Mediterranean Basin: a synthesis1
- Otoliths from the lower Pliocene of the section Prassies (Rethymnon, NW-Crete), Systematics - Paleoecology1
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. 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 Diaphus holti
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Dr Tony Ayling
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 1.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
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 itDiaphus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Taaning 1918