Eosalmo

Eosalmo is an extinct genus of ancient freshwater salmonid with a single described species Eosalmo driftwoodensis. The genus lived during the Eocene epoch and has been recovered from late Ypresian fossils in the Eocene Okanagan Highlands of the northwestern United States and western Canada. Additional fossils briefly mentioned as Eosalmo were reported from Russia, but they have not received close taxonomic treatment since. E. driftwoodensis is used as a phylogenetic calibration point for studies of the relationships in Salmonidae and Salmoniformes. Based on preservation of juvenile to adult specimens at some of the sites, the species lived its full lifecycle in freshwater, with no travel from the highlands to the sea as in modern salmon.

Eosalmo

Kevmin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
SalmoninaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Salmoniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Salmoniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Salmoniformes

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 20.45 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiocene57–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41.03 Mya23.04 Mya56.7 Mya19.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Eosalmo 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

4 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

2 formations

Klondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WKlondike Mountain — 48.88°N, 118.87°WHaughton — 75.41°N, 89.43°W

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The named rock units Eosalmo has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eosalmo and its relatives

Eocene

Where Eosalmo and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

54 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Eosalmo, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Eosalmo

Credit
Kevmin
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eosalmo was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itSalmoninae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wilson 1975