Holoptychius

Searched as Holoptychius decoratus. The Paleobiology Database treats Holoptychius as the accepted name.

Holoptychius is an extinct genus of marine & freshwater porolepiform lobe-finned fish from the Late Devonian period. It is known from fossils worldwide, from North America, South America, and much of Europe. The genus was first described by Louis Agassiz in 1839.

Holoptychius

Smokeybjb · 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
HoloptychiidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 382.31 Mya and 372.15 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Devonian — about 2 of 2 occurrencesDevonian382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences379–378 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences378–378 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences378–378 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences378–377 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences377–377 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences377–376 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences376–376 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences376–376 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences376–375 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences375–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–375 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences375–374 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences374–374 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences374–374 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences374–373 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences373–373 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences373–372 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences372–372 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382.8 Mya371.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Holoptychius 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

2 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.

Holoptychius and its relatives

Devonian

Where Holoptychius and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

291 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Holoptychius, 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

1 reference

Each of the 2 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Holoptychius

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
AVZ
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHoloptychiidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Agassiz 1843)