Lates niloticus

The Nile perch, also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, Nile lates, African lates, Goliath lates, Victoria lates, African barramundi, Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. It is widespread throughout much of the Afrotropical realm, being native to the Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana, and other river basins. It also occurs in the brackish waters of Lake Maryut in Egypt. The Nile perch is a fish of substantial economic and food-security importance in East Africa. Originally described as Labrus niloticus, among the marine wrasses, the species has also been referred to as Centropomus niloticus. Common names include African snook, Victoria perch, and many local names in various African languages, such as the Luo name mbuta or mputa. In Tanzania, it is called sangara, sankara, or chenku. In Francophone African countries, it is known as capitaine. Its name in the Hausa language is giwan ruwa, meaning "water elephant".

Lates niloticus

Daiju Azuma · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Also called
Nile perchPBDB
Sits inside
LatesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 73 occurrencesMiocene — about 33 of 73 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 23 of 73 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 10 of 73 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

73 occurrences of Lates niloticus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

73 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

13 formations

Nkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°EOluka — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENyakabingo — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENyabusosi — 1.00°N, 30.50°EGabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EGabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°EKaiso Village — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EBeglia — 34.33°N, 8.41°EBeglia — 34.20°N, 8.70°ELusso Beds — 0.03°N, 29.62°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°E

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The named rock units Lates niloticus 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.

Lates niloticus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lates niloticus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

478 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Lates niloticus, 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

25 references

Each of the 73 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. 13 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 Lates niloticus

Credit
Daiju Azuma
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lates niloticus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itLates through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)