Hemiramphidae

Hemiramphidae is a family of fishes that are commonly called halfbeaks, spipe fish or spipefish. They are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The halfbeaks are named for their distinctive jaws, in which the lower jaws are significantly longer than the upper jaws. The similar viviparous halfbeaks have often been included in this family.

Hemiramphidae

KevinHadley · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
BelonoideiPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Beloniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Beloniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Beloniformes

Time the record covers

At least 46 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 27 occurrencesEocene — about 8 of 27 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 27 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 8 of 27 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 27 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 27 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–40 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences48.07 Mya1.8 Mya57 Mya0 Mya

27 occurrences of Hemiramphidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

27 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

Kreyenhagen — 37.08°N, 120.48°WKreyenhagen — 36.90°N, 120.28°WKreyenhagen — 34.99°N, 119.34°WKreyenhagen — 36.55°N, 120.55°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°EAlzey — 49.83°N, 7.72°EBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WBassevelde Sand — 51.08°N, 4.35°ETumey — 36.55°N, 120.55°WTsurevsky — 44.41°N, 39.79°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hemiramphidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hemiramphidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Hemiramphidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,246 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Hemiramphidae, 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

18 references

Each of the 27 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. 6 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 Hemiramphidae

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

No 3D scan of Hemiramphidae 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 itBelonoidei through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gill 1859