Megalichthys

Megalichthys is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. It is the type genus of the family Megalichthyidae. The type species is M. hibberti. The species M. mullisoni, named for fossil preparator C Frederick Mullison, is known from the Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania.

Megalichthys

ДиБгд · 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
OsteolepidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Osteolepidae

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 358.86 Mya to 298.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 372.15 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 11 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 9 of 11 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPermian374–371 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences371–367 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences367–364 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences364–361 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences361–357 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences347–344 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences344–340 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences340–337 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences337–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–330 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences330–327 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences327–323 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences323–320 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences320–316 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences316–313 Mya — about 2 occurrences313–310 Mya — about 1 occurrence310–306 Mya — about 1 occurrence306–303 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences303–300 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences300–296 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences296–293 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences293–289 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences289–286 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences286–283 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences283–279 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences279–276 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences276–272 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences358.86 Mya298.9 Mya374 Mya272 Mya

11 occurrences of Megalichthys on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

11 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

6 formations

Kanawha — 38.00°N, 81.00°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°WCatskill — 41.34°N, 77.68°WGullane — 55.98°N, 3.21°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.14°N, 3.09°WLimestone Coal — 55.92°N, 4.33°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Megalichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megalichthys and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Megalichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

89 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Megalichthys, 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

9 references

Each of the 11 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 content2

Picture of Megalichthys

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Megalichthys mullisoni · ansp:vp:21160

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 itOsteolepidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1835