Diplurus

Diplurus is a genus of prehistoric mawsoniid coelacanth fish which lived during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic period in North America. The fossils of this genus are common on the eastern North American Margin, being a key taxon of the Newark Supergroup, and recovered from units such as the Bull Run Formation, Lockatong Formation, Stockton Formation, Solite Quarry, Midland Formation, East Berlin Formation, Boonton Formation and the Portland Formation. Three species are known, the type D. longicaudatus, the youngest and biggest, D. newarki, the oldest, followed then by "D. uddeni" (Eastman), also from older rocks and considered dubious. Recent studies have recovered a 3rd or 4th species, D. enigmaticus, from the Late Triassic of New Jersey, representing another small-bodied form living in sympatry with the similarly sized D. newarki. This genus ranges in size from 15 cm of D. newarki and D. enigmaticus in New Jersey to the larger 60 cm specimens of Diplurus longicaudatus found in the Connecticut River Valley, which indicates a considerable growth and likely a change in the ecological position of the genus to a possible apex predatory niche. It may have eaten fish.

Diplurus

Tim Evanson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
MawsoniidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 199.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 192.9 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 30 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 24 of 30 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 6 of 30 occurrencesEarly Jurassic238–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences235–233 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences233–232 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–229 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences229–227 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 2 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 2 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 2 occurrences223–221 Mya — about 2 occurrences221–220 Mya — about 2 occurrences220–218 Mya — about 2 occurrences218–216 Mya — about 2 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 2 occurrences215–213 Mya — about 2 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 2 occurrences212–210 Mya — about 2 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 2 occurrences209–207 Mya — about 2 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 2 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences203–201 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 4 occurrences200–198 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences197–195 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences194–192 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227.3 Mya199.5 Mya237.9 Mya192 Mya

30 occurrences of Diplurus on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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

30 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

10 formations

Lockatong — 40.81°N, 74.02°WLockatong — 40.20°N, 75.27°WLockatong — 40.17°N, 75.35°WLockatong — 40.13°N, 75.52°WLockatong — 40.42°N, 75.06°WStockton — 40.86°N, 73.96°WStockton — 40.33°N, 74.65°WShuttle Meadow — 41.42°N, 72.72°WShuttle Meadow — 41.40°N, 72.77°WEast Berlin — 41.45°N, 72.74°WEast Berlin — 41.60°N, 72.71°WLithofacies Association II — 35.87°N, 78.90°WCow Branch — 36.54°N, 79.67°WMidland — 38.62°N, 77.74°WBull Run — 38.96°N, 77.43°WBoonton — 40.90°N, 74.40°WPine Hall — 36.53°N, 79.67°W

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

Diplurus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Diplurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

110 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Diplurus, 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 30 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 content1

Picture of Diplurus

Credit
Tim Evanson
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Diplurus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itMawsoniidae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newberry 1878