Lepidosiren

The South American lungfish, also known as the American mud-fish and scaly salamanderfish, is the single species of lungfish found in swamps and slow-moving waters of the Amazon, Paraguay, and lower Paraná River basins in South America. Notable as an obligate air-breather, it is the sole member of its family Lepidosirenidae, although some authors also place Protopterus in the family. In Brazil, it is known by the indigenous language Tupi name piramboia, which means "snake-fish", and synonyms pirarucu-bóia, traíra-bóia, and caramuru.

Lepidosiren

François-Louis Laporte, comte de Castelnau · Public Domain · 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
LepidosirenidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ceratodontiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Ceratodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ceratodontiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Lepidosirenidae

Time the record covers

At least 54 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 31 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 31 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 31 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesMiocene — about 26 of 31 occurrencesMiocene73–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences62–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 10 occurrences13–10 Mya — about 14 occurrences10–8.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66 Mya11.63 Mya73 Mya6 Mya

31 occurrences of Lepidosiren on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

31 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

Villavieja — 3.24°N, 75.17°WVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.19°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.14°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.14°WLa Victoria — 3.24°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.31°N, 75.17°WMuñani — 15.73°S, 70.17°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WPebas — 2.81°S, 73.55°WSolimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WEl Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WSanta Lucía — 18.03°S, 65.58°WLumbrera — 23.22°S, 65.68°WCastilletes — 11.91°N, 71.34°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lepidosiren has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lepidosiren and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lepidosiren and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

138 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Lepidosiren, 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

11 references

Each of the 31 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 content3

Picture of Lepidosiren

Credit
François-Louis Laporte, comte de Castelnau
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lepidosiren paradoxa · TCWC:Ichthyology:16678.1

3D model

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

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 itLepidosirenidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzinger 1837