Lycoptera

Lycoptera is an extinct genus of fish that lived from Lower Cretaceous, Barremian to Aptian in present-day China, North Korea, Mongolia and Siberia. Although there is record from Jurassic Formation in Siberia, its age remains questionable. It is known from abundant fossils representing sixteen species, which serve as important index fossil used to date geologic formations in China. Along with the genus Peipiaosteus, Lycoptera has been considered a defining member of the Jehol Biota, a prehistoric ecosystem famous for its feathered dinosaurs, which flourished for 20 million years during the Early Cretaceous, where it occurs abundantly in often monospecific beds, where they are thought to have died in seasonal mass death events. Lycoptera is a crown group teleost belonging to an early diverging lineage of the Osteoglossomorpha, which contains living mooneyes, arapaima, arowana, elephantfish and knifefish/featherbacks.

Lycoptera

Dwergenpaartje · 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
LycopteridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 17 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous144–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 1 occurrence125–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 2 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 1 occurrence119–118 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132.6 Mya121.4 Mya143.7 Mya112.6 Mya

17 occurrences of Lycoptera 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

17 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

7 formations

Yixian — 42.06°N, 121.75°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.87°EYixian — 41.47°N, 121.19°EYixian — 40.00°N, 116.67°EYixian — 41.42°N, 118.97°EYixian — 41.25°N, 119.25°EJiufotang — 41.81°N, 121.99°EJiufotang — 41.25°N, 120.03°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°EJiufotang — 40.65°N, 119.68°EJingchuan — 38.92°N, 107.26°EMengyin — 35.87°N, 117.95°EAndaikhudag — 44.75°N, 101.87°EYingzuilazi — 41.97°N, 126.43°ELongjiang — 48.60°N, 123.98°E

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The named rock units Lycoptera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lycoptera and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

107 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Lycoptera, 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

16 references

Each of the 17 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. 4 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 Lycoptera

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

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lycoptera middendorffi · nhmuk:pal:PV P 6728

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 itLycopteridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Müller 1847