Monacanthidae

The filefish (Monacanthidae) are a diverse family of tropical to subtropical tetraodontiform marine fish, which are also known as foolfish, leatherjackets, or shingles. They live in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Filefish are closely related to triggerfish, pufferfish, and trunkfish. Their rough skin lead to their common name, alluding to the file.

Monacanthidae

Michael Bommerer · CC BY 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
BalistoideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Tetraodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Tetraodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Tetraodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 16 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 16 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 16 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 16 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Monacanthidae on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

16 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

8 formations

Pongo — 15.49°S, 74.75°WPongo — 15.50°S, 74.40°WLoxton — 34.15°S, 139.91°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WGoose Creek — 32.83°N, 79.99°WCaracoles — 15.50°S, 74.75°W

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The named rock units Monacanthidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Monacanthidae and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Monacanthidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

941 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Monacanthidae, 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

13 references

Each of the 16 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. 1 further reference is 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 Monacanthidae

Credit
Michael Bommerer
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Monacanthidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itBalistoidei through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.