Myctophum punctatum
Myctophum punctatum is a species of mesopelagic fish in the family Myctophidae. Its common name is spotted lanternfish, sometimes spelled spotted lanterfish. It is found in the Northern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean at depths down to 1,000 m (3,280 ft). It is one of the dominant species in midwater assemblages near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Emma Kissling · Public Domain · 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- Also called
- spotted lanternfishPBDB
- Sits inside
- MyctophumPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Time the record covers
At least 6.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 129 ka.
19 occurrences of Myctophum punctatum on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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
19 occurrences- Miocene32%
- Pleistocene68%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Myctophum punctatum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Myctophum punctatum and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Myctophum punctatum and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
324 taxa- Notoscopelus elongatus15 sites
- Gadiculus argenteus14 sites
- Lobianchia dofleini12 sites
- Scopelopsis pliocenicus12 sites
- Hygophum benoiti11 sites
- Benthosema glaciale10 sites
- Ceratoscopelus maderensis10 sites
- Deltentosteus9 sites
- Diaphus taaningi9 sites
- Hygophum9 sites
- Lesueurigobius9 sites
- Maurolicus muelleri9 sites
- Phycis9 sites
- Diaphus holti8 sites
- Lampanyctus crocodilus8 sites
- Dentex7 sites
- Gobius7 sites
- Micromesistius poutassou7 sites
- Diaphus cavallonis6 sites
- Diaphus rafinesquii6 sites
- Otolithus labiatus6 sites
- Cepola5 sites
- Coelorinchus stellaris5 sites
- Diaphus splendidus5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Myctophum punctatum, 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
7 references- Pleistocene fish otoliths from the Mediterranean Basin: a synthesis6
- Tortonian teleost otoliths from northern Italy: taxonomic synthesis and stratigraphic significance4
- Pleistocene marine fish invasions and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the eastern Mediterranean3
- The fossil otolith record of fishes (Vertebrata: Teleostei) in Greece2
- Paleobathymetric interpretation of the fish otoliths from the lower - middle quaternary deposits of Kephallonia and Zakynthos islands (Ionian Sea, Western Greece)2
- Connectivity controls on the late Miocene eastern Mediterranean fish fauna1
- Tortonian fish otoliths from turbiditic deposits in Northern Italy: Taxonomic and stratigraphic significance1
Each of the 19 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 Myctophum punctatum
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Emma Kissling
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- MCZ Ichthyology
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Myctophum punctatum · MCZ:Ich:105667
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 itMyctophum through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Rafinesque 1810)