Macrosemiidae

Macrosemiidae is an extinct family of ginglymodian fish. The family first appeared during the Middle Triassic and disappeared during the Late Cretaceous. The group has been found in rock formations in Africa, Australia, Eurasia and North America. As ginglymodians, their closest living relatives are gars, with them being typically placed as nested within the Semionotiformes. Many members of the family have elongated dorsal fins, often associated with adjacent area of skin which was free of scales. These fins were likely undulated for use in precision swimming. Their body morphology suggests that they were slow swimmers that were capable of maneuvering around complex topography, such as reef environments.

Macrosemiidae

Arratia, G. and Schultze, H.-P. · 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
MacrosemiiformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 172 million years on record.

The record covers at least 244.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 86 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 35 of 86 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 10 of 86 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 86 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 86 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 16 of 86 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 18 of 86 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 6 of 86 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 86 occurrences251–244 Mya — about 4 occurrences244–238 Mya — about 28 occurrences238–232 Mya — about 3 occurrences219–213 Mya — about 5 occurrences213–207 Mya — about 3 occurrences207–200 Mya — about 2 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 1 occurrence157–150 Mya — about 6 occurrences150–144 Mya — about 10 occurrences144–138 Mya — about 4 occurrences138–131 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences131–125 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences125–119 Mya — about 4 occurrences119–113 Mya — about 2 occurrences113–106 Mya — about 5 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences100–94 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–62 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences244.4 Mya72.2 Mya251 Mya62 Mya

86 occurrences of Macrosemiidae on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

86 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

25 formations

Meride — 45.90°N, 8.93°EMeride — 45.89°N, 8.96°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.18°ESolnhofen — 48.94°N, 8.41°ECassina — 45.91°N, 8.95°ETlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WHauptdolomit — 47.73°N, 13.14°EVossenveld — 51.97°N, 6.78°ELa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WMuschelkalk — 41.27°N, 1.12°EAkrabou — 30.51°N, 4.84°WCalcare di Zorzino — 45.82°N, 9.60°EMeride — 45.88°N, 8.90°EBesano — 45.91°N, 8.95°EGrünsandstein — 48.93°N, 11.83°ESierra Madre — 16.68°N, 93.46°WZorzino Limestone — 45.78°N, 9.82°EWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WStrelovec — 46.33°N, 14.59°ESainte-Barbe Clays — 50.48°N, 3.65°EKössen — 47.13°N, 9.85°EHeilbronn — 52.49°N, 13.83°ECantelhá — 16.71°N, 92.65°WTremp — 41.12°N, 1.01°EConques — 42.09°N, 0.69°ELa Pedrera de Rúbies — 42.03°N, 0.83°E

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The named rock units Macrosemiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macrosemiidae and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Macrosemiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

696 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Macrosemiidae, 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

34 references

Each of the 86 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. 22 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 Macrosemiidae

Credit
Arratia, G. and Schultze, H.-P.
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Macrosemiidae was found in Sketchfab.

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 itMacrosemiiformes through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Thiollière 1858