Gyroptychius

Gyroptychius is an extinct genus of freshwater osteolepiform tetrapodomorphs from the middle to late Devonian period. It is the only known member of the family Gyroptychiidae. They were found throughout much of what is now northern Europe and Greenland, with more dubious records from Canada, Australia & Antarctica.

Gyroptychius

Ghedoghedo · 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
GyroptychiidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 383.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 379 Mya.

Devonian — about 14 of 14 occurrencesDevonian394–393 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 2 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 2 occurrences387–386 Mya — about 2 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 1 occurrence386–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences384–383 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387.95 Mya383.4 Mya394 Mya378.5 Mya

14 occurrences of Gyroptychius on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

14 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

9 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WNarva — 57.55°N, 25.29°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°EAruküla — 57.55°N, 25.28°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EPolotsk — 51.88°N, 26.85°EOberer Plattenkalk — 50.99°N, 7.15°EUpper Stromness Flagstones — 59.08°N, 3.32°WHam-Scarfskerry Flagstone — 58.62°N, 3.59°W

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

Gyroptychius and its relatives

Devonian

Where Gyroptychius and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

98 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Gyroptychius, 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

5 references

Each of the 14 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. 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 Gyroptychius

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

No 3D scan of Gyroptychius 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 itGyroptychiidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. M'Coy 1848