Enchodontidae

Enchodontidae is an extinct family of marine enchodontoid aulopiform ray-finned fish from the Cretaceous to potentially the Eocene, being found worldwide. The family itself was diverse within its body form though unlike other enchodontoids, most genera within the family possessed rows of scutes behind the head and sides of the body. Like a large amount of extinct groups, the origin of enchodontids have remained obscured though this is mostly due to a large diversification event that happened in the Late Aptian to Middle Cenomanian. Though the family is diverse in their range and anatomy, all known members were predatory with most living in more shallow, near-shore environments.

Enchodontidae

Ghedoghedo · 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
AlepisauroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Aulopiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Aulopiformes

Time the record covers

At least 141 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 352 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 352 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 352 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 333 of 352 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 352 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 352 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 352 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 352 occurrences168–163 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences163–158 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 1 occurrence117–111 Mya — about 1 occurrence111–106 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 2 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 52 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 50 occurrences91–85 Mya — about 22 occurrences85–80 Mya — about 48 occurrences80–75 Mya — about 40 occurrences75–70 Mya — about 58 occurrences70–65 Mya — about 63 occurrences65–60 Mya — about 2 occurrences60–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 2 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences161.5 Mya20.45 Mya168 Mya13 Mya

352 occurrences of Enchodontidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

352 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

111 formations

Greenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.34°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WGreenhorn Limestone — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.87°N, 98.51°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.94°N, 98.80°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.92°N, 98.90°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.38°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.26°N, 100.55°WFox Hills — 46.28°N, 100.52°WFox Hills — 46.11°N, 103.90°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.42°WFox Hills — 46.30°N, 100.33°WFox Hills — 46.42°N, 100.74°WFox Hills — 46.41°N, 100.86°WFox Hills — 44.52°N, 102.39°WCarlile Shale — 39.89°N, 98.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.08°N, 99.24°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 38.72°N, 99.32°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WMooreville Chalk — 32.94°N, 88.06°WMooreville Chalk — 32.95°N, 88.08°WMooreville Chalk — 31.91°N, 87.87°WMooreville Chalk — 32.44°N, 87.24°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WNiobrara — 43.41°N, 103.31°WNiobrara — 39.06°N, 99.23°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WAhlen — 51.83°N, 7.83°EAhlen — 51.86°N, 7.74°EAhlen — 51.80°N, 7.75°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 51.23°N, 45.10°ECintalapa — 16.57°N, 93.27°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WPierre Shale — 38.90°N, 101.13°WPierre Shale — 43.22°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°WPierre Shale — 39.01°N, 101.37°WNavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WBahariya — 28.37°N, 28.90°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WPierre Shale — 51.96°N, 101.25°WMount Laurel — 40.12°N, 74.55°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WZig Zag Chalk — 51.33°N, 0.49°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.86°N, 0.07°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.90°N, 0.15°WMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.79°EMaastricht — 50.82°N, 5.68°EMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WDemopolis Chalk — 32.27°N, 87.50°WDemopolis Chalk — 32.67°N, 88.11°WDemopolis Chalk — 33.52°N, 88.78°WEutaw — 32.35°N, 86.35°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WMishash — 30.67°N, 35.08°EMishash — 30.62°N, 35.12°EJagüel — 39.72°S, 66.67°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Enchodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 87 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 80 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Enchodontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Enchodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,104 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 268 sites for Enchodontidae, and this reads 240 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

188 references

Each of the 352 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. 176 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 Enchodontidae

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

No 3D scan of Enchodontidae 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 itAlepisauroidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodward 1901