Elonichthys

Elonichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric freshwater ray-finned fish known from the late Paleozoic. The genus sensu stricto contains three species known from the latest Carboniferous to the earliest Permian of freshwater ecosystems of Europe, but as a former wastebasket taxon, it contains many more dubiously-classified species from the Carboniferous and Permian of Europe, Greenland, South Africa, and North America.

Elonichthys

Daderot · Public Domain · 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
ElonichthyidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 368.5 Mya to 247 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 372.15 Mya to 241.464 Mya.

Devonian — about 2 of 239 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 204 of 239 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 29 of 239 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 239 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 4 of 239 occurrences375–370 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences370–366 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences366–361 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences361–357 Mya — about 3 occurrences357–352 Mya — about 6 occurrences352–348 Mya — about 6 occurrences348–343 Mya — about 6 occurrences343–339 Mya — about 18 occurrences339–334 Mya — about 33 occurrences334–329 Mya — about 16 occurrences329–325 Mya — about 9 occurrences325–320 Mya — about 5 occurrences320–316 Mya — about 20 occurrences316–311 Mya — about 8 occurrences311–307 Mya — about 12 occurrences307–302 Mya — about 6 occurrences302–298 Mya — about 58 occurrences298–293 Mya — about 4 occurrences293–289 Mya — about 2 occurrences289–284 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences284–280 Mya — about 3 occurrences280–275 Mya — about 5 occurrences275–271 Mya — about 4 occurrences271–266 Mya — about 3 occurrences266–262 Mya — about 1 occurrence262–257 Mya — about 3 occurrences257–252 Mya — about 2 occurrences248–243 Mya — about 3 occurrences243–239 Mya — about 1 occurrence368.5 Mya247 Mya375 Mya239 Mya

239 occurrences of Elonichthys on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

239 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

68 formations

Slaný — 49.77°N, 13.30°ESlaný — 50.33°N, 14.87°ESlaný — 50.26°N, 14.08°ESlaný — 50.29°N, 14.85°ESlaný — 50.30°N, 13.96°ESlaný — 50.21°N, 13.68°ESlaný — 50.33°N, 14.69°ESlaný — 50.41°N, 14.45°ESlaný — 50.24°N, 14.00°ESlaný — 50.37°N, 14.15°ESlaný — 50.35°N, 14.70°ESlaný — 50.39°N, 13.81°ESlaný — 49.71°N, 13.21°ESlaný — 50.19°N, 14.08°ESlaný — 50.32°N, 15.00°EWest Lothian Oil Shale — 56.03°N, 3.14°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.89°N, 3.17°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.92°N, 3.43°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.93°N, 3.47°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 56.07°N, 3.25°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.98°N, 3.48°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.85°N, 3.57°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.83°N, 3.65°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.80°N, 3.57°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.99°N, 3.40°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.86°N, 3.99°WGullane — 56.04°N, 2.83°WGullane — 55.89°N, 3.47°WGullane — 55.97°N, 3.25°WGullane — 55.98°N, 3.20°WGullane — 55.88°N, 3.59°WGullane — 55.93°N, 3.24°WCarbondale — 41.21°N, 88.22°WCarbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.34°N, 87.98°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.73°N, 1.58°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.13°N, 3.10°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.17°N, 3.09°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 52.97°N, 3.09°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.11°N, 3.03°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.21°N, 3.04°WTyne limestone — 55.11°N, 2.98°WScottish Lower Coal Measures — 55.87°N, 3.88°WScottish Lower Coal Measures — 55.85°N, 3.83°WScottish Lower Coal Measures — 55.83°N, 3.79°WScottish Lower Coal Measures — 55.84°N, 3.73°WSemily — 50.50°N, 15.38°ESemily — 50.37°N, 15.01°ESemily — 50.57°N, 15.35°EAlbert — 45.88°N, 64.67°WAlbert — 45.72°N, 65.52°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WSyřenov — 50.44°N, 15.13°ESyřenov — 50.37°N, 15.01°ESyřenov — 50.56°N, 15.11°ELíně — 50.29°N, 13.99°ELíně — 50.26°N, 14.06°ELíně — 50.36°N, 14.76°ELíně — 50.51°N, 14.43°ELower Limestone — 56.07°N, 3.17°WLower Limestone — 56.31°N, 2.87°WLower Limestone — 55.90°N, 3.14°WCaton Shales — 54.00°N, 2.83°WCalciferous Sandstone — 56.06°N, 3.23°WCalciferous Sandstone — 55.20°N, 3.07°WPennine Middle Coal Measures — 53.00°N, 2.16°WPennine Middle Coal Measures — 52.99°N, 2.13°WPendleside Limestones — 53.59°N, 1.95°WPendleside Limestones — 53.71°N, 2.10°WLimestone Coal — 55.88°N, 3.15°WLimestone Coal — 55.89°N, 4.25°WLimestone Coal — 55.94°N, 3.01°WMillstone grit — 53.66°N, 2.08°WPuertollano basin — 38.68°N, 4.12°WVrchlabí — 49.40°N, 16.14°EVrchlabí — 50.62°N, 15.37°EVrchlabí — 50.63°N, 15.61°EIntinsky — 58.26°N, 56.26°EIntinsky — 67.58°N, 63.78°EIntinsky — 59.84°N, 56.52°ERavnefjeld — 73.99°N, 21.42°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Elonichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elonichthys and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Elonichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

589 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 199 sites for Elonichthys, 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

55 references

Each of the 239 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. 43 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 Elonichthys

Credit
Daderot
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Elonichthys was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itElonichthyidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Giebel 1848