Diplomystus

Diplomystus is an extinct genus of freshwater and marine clupeomorph fish distantly related to modern-day extant herrings, anchovies, and sardines. It is known from the United States, Canada, China, Uzbekistan and Lebanon from the Late Cretaceous to the middle Eocene. Many other clupeomorph species from around the world were also formerly placed in the genus, due to it being a former wastebasket taxon. It was among the last surviving members of the formerly-diverse order Ellimmichthyiformes, with only its close relative Guiclupea living for longer.

Diplomystus

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
ArmigatidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ellimmichthyiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ellimmichthyiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ellimmichthyiformes

Time the record covers

At least 74 million years on record.

The record covers at least 125.77 Mya to 51.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 25 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 9 of 25 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 25 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 25 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 10 of 25 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences145–141 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences141–138 Mya — about 1 occurrence138–134 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–130 Mya — about 1 occurrence130–126 Mya — about 1 occurrence126–123 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–115 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 1 occurrence111–107 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 1 occurrence92–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–62 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 5 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences43–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125.77 Mya51.1 Mya145 Mya32 Mya

25 occurrences of Diplomystus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

25 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

8 formations

Green River — 41.77°N, 110.75°WGreen River — 41.87°N, 110.68°WGreen River — 41.67°N, 110.67°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WGreen River — 42.13°N, 110.13°WGreen River — 41.63°N, 109.50°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WGreen River — 42.17°N, 109.42°WThird — 33.83°N, 130.85°EAkrabou — 30.51°N, 4.84°WWasatch — 41.53°N, 108.56°WNaturita — 37.80°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°ERavenscrag — 49.60°N, 108.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Diplomystus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diplomystus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Diplomystus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

280 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Diplomystus, 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

15 references

Each of the 25 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. 3 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 Diplomystus

Credit
Didier Descouens
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itArmigatidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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