Lepidotes

Lepidotes is an extinct genus of Mesozoic ray-finned fish. It has long been considered a wastebasket taxon, characterised by "general features, such as thick rhomboid scales and, for most of the species, by semi-tritorial or strongly tritorial dentition". with dozens of species assigned to it. Fossils attributed to Lepidotes have been found in Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks worldwide. It has been argued that Lepidotes should be restricted to species closely related to the type species L. gigas, which are only known from the Early Jurassic of Western and Central Europe, with most other species being not closely related, with other species transferred to new genera such as Scheenstia. Lepidotes belongs to Ginglymodi, a clade of fish whose only living representatives are the gars (Lepisosteidae). The type species L. gigas and close relatives are thought to be members of the family Lepidotidae, part of the order Lepisosteiformes within Ginglymodi, with other species occupying various other positions within Ginglymodi.

A picture published with the record for Lepidotes.

Ghedo · 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
Sits inside
SemionotidaePBDB
Diet
durophage, carnivorePBDB, for Semionotiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Semionotiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Semionotiformes

Time the record covers

At least 169 million years on record.

The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 244.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 2 of 292 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 24 of 292 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 17 of 292 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 32 of 292 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 68 of 292 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 119 of 292 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 31 of 292 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 292 occurrences248–242 Mya — about 2 occurrences242–236 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences236–229 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences229–223 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences223–217 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences217–211 Mya — about 3 occurrences211–205 Mya — about 5 occurrences205–198 Mya — about 15 occurrences198–192 Mya — about 1 occurrence192–186 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences186–180 Mya — about 9 occurrences180–174 Mya — about 6 occurrences174–168 Mya — about 7 occurrences168–161 Mya — about 25 occurrences161–155 Mya — about 12 occurrences155–149 Mya — about 21 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 35 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 14 occurrences137–130 Mya — about 8 occurrences130–124 Mya — about 19 occurrences124–118 Mya — about 34 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 19 occurrences112–106 Mya — about 14 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 12 occurrences100–93 Mya — about 19 occurrences87–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–75 Mya — about 3 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences241.464 Mya72.2 Mya248 Mya62 Mya

292 occurrences of Lepidotes on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

292 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

119 formations

Tendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.18°EPaluxy — 32.00°N, 98.25°WPaluxy — 33.15°N, 97.57°WPaluxy — 33.08°N, 97.64°WPaluxy — 31.70°N, 98.51°WPaluxy — 32.95°N, 97.69°WPaluxy — 33.50°N, 97.50°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WLa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°WLourinhã — 39.45°N, 9.21°WLourinhã — 39.24°N, 9.34°WLourinhã — 39.85°N, 8.62°WWestbury — 53.03°N, 0.81°WWestbury — 52.91°N, 0.90°WWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.61°WWestbury — 51.18°N, 3.38°WAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 32.68°N, 10.17°EAïn el Guettar — 32.82°N, 10.25°EAïn el Guettar — 32.27°N, 10.33°EOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WOxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.23°WOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WDouiret — 32.87°N, 10.38°EDouiret — 32.82°N, 10.25°EDouiret — 32.69°N, 10.26°EDouiret — 32.17°N, 10.40°EDouiret — 33.11°N, 10.33°EBrejo Santo — 7.25°S, 39.12°WBrejo Santo — 7.50°S, 39.00°WBrejo Santo — 7.17°S, 39.31°WHythe — 51.24°N, 0.05°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EKhodzhakul — 40.60°N, 71.83°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.70°N, 0.01°WContinental Intercalaire — 28.50°N, 9.57°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.53°N, 9.05°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°ECedar Mountain — 39.05°N, 111.04°WCedar Mountain — 38.69°N, 111.26°WWeald Clay — 50.96°N, 0.12°WWeald Clay — 51.13°N, 0.35°WWeald Clay — 52.72°N, 1.44°WKuwajima — 36.17°N, 136.63°EForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 52.01°N, 1.90°WForest Marble — 51.38°N, 2.26°WCamarillas — 40.65°N, 0.88°WCamarillas — 40.65°N, 0.86°WCamarillas — 40.22°N, 1.89°WEl Castellar — 40.67°N, 0.67°WEl Castellar — 40.62°N, 0.84°WLealt Shale — 56.92°N, 6.15°WLealt Shale — 56.91°N, 6.11°WGreat Oolite — 52.55°N, 0.30°WGreat Oolite — 51.93°N, 1.78°WGreat Oolite — 52.25°N, 2.52°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.49°N, 0.18°EHuérteles — 42.06°N, 2.39°WVectis — 50.62°N, 1.38°WVectis — 50.65°N, 1.47°W

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The named rock units Lepidotes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 95 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lepidotes and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Lepidotes and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,013 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 263 sites for Lepidotes, and this reads 240 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

167 references

Each of the 292 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. 155 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 content2

Picture of Lepidotes

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

3D model

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

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 itSemionotidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1832