Esocidae

Esocidae is a family of ray-finned fish in the order Salmoniformes, which contains pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. While the family traditionally only contained the genus Esox, recent genetic and paleontological research have recovered Novumbra and Dallia as members of the family Esocidae, being closer related to Esox than Umbra. Fossil specimens from the Mesozoic in North America have been assigned as two additional genera in this family, although they may actually be more basal.

Esocidae

Uncredited · 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
EsociformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 83 million years on record.

The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 138 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 77 of 138 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 138 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 4 of 138 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 138 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 138 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 138 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 138 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 11 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 16 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 16 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 15 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 11 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 11 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 6 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 1 occurrence55–51 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 29 occurrences83.6 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

138 occurrences of Esocidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

138 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

31 formations

Dinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.27°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 49.30°N, 110.61°WOldman — 50.81°N, 111.63°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WPrince Creek — 70.02°N, 151.59°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 47.58°N, 107.05°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 50.40°N, 110.30°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.42°N, 1.72°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.91°N, 1.36°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°EMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WKaiparowits — 37.42°N, 111.77°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°E"Brian Head" — 37.80°N, 111.50°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EKuyal'nikian — 49.70°N, 28.42°EPaskapoo — 54.33°N, 118.75°WGreen River — 41.87°N, 110.68°WLaa — 48.42°N, 16.38°EAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°EChersonian — 47.25°N, 28.69°E

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The named rock units Esocidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 32 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Esocidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,607 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 124 sites for Esocidae, 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

57 references

Each of the 138 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. 45 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 Esocidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Esocidae 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 itEsociformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1817