Melvius

Melvius is a genus of vidalamiin amiid ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous. The type species, Melvius thomasi, was described by Bryant in 1987 from Hell Creek Formation. A second species Melvius chauliodous, was named and described by Hall and Wolberg in 1989 from Kirtland Formation, and it is now considered to be one of the index taxa of the Kirtlandian land-vertebrate age.

Melvius

Hutchison, J.H.+Munthe, J.+Ramsey, B. · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
VidalamiinaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, piscivorePBDB, for Amiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Amiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Amiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 119.57 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 5 of 87 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 82 of 87 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 87 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 5 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 4 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 4 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 13 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 14 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 14 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 6 occurrences113.2 Mya72.2 Mya121 Mya65 Mya

87 occurrences of Melvius on record, most of them in the Late 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

87 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

21 formations

Hell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.45°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.98°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 47.47°N, 107.37°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WIron Springs — 37.80°N, 112.81°WIron Springs — 37.90°N, 112.74°WIron Springs — 37.37°N, 113.35°WIron Springs — 37.57°N, 113.43°WCerro del Pueblo — 26.12°N, 101.12°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.51°N, 101.34°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.50°N, 101.40°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.50°N, 101.75°WPaluxy — 32.22°N, 98.20°WPaluxy — 33.12°N, 97.57°WKirtland — 36.17°N, 107.80°WKirtland — 36.29°N, 108.10°WKirtland — 36.16°N, 107.93°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WAguja — 29.24°N, 103.61°WAguja — 29.29°N, 103.61°WAguja — 29.33°N, 103.48°WFort Crittenden — 31.67°N, 110.77°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WMesaverde — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWahweap — 37.60°N, 111.90°WWahweap — 37.22°N, 111.53°WWilliams Fork — 40.03°N, 108.85°WWilliams Fork — 39.93°N, 108.82°WTwin Mountains — 32.27°N, 97.91°WMoreno Hill — 35.07°N, 108.85°WOlmos — 27.81°N, 101.16°WMasuk — 38.07°N, 110.91°WFox Hills — 46.58°N, 100.28°WKaiparowits — 37.45°N, 111.53°WStraight Cliffs — 37.60°N, 111.97°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WFruitland — 36.12°N, 107.84°W

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The named rock units Melvius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Melvius and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Melvius and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

498 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Melvius, 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

25 references

Each of the 87 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. 13 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 Melvius

Source
GBIF
Credit
Hutchison, J.H.+Munthe, J.+Ramsey, B.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Melvius sp. · dmnh:epv:149538

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 itVidalamiinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bryant 1988