Onychodus

Onychodus is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian Period. It is one of the best known of the group of onychodontiform fishes. Scattered fossil teeth of Onychodus were first described from Ohio in 1857 by John Strong Newberry. Other species were found in Australia, England, Norway and Germany showing that it had a widespread range.

Onychodus

Kate Trinajstic; Derek E. G. Briggs; John A. Long · 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
OnychodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 78 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 315.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 307 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 24 occurrencesDevonian — about 23 of 24 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 1 of 24 occurrencesCarboniferous422–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences418–414 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences414–410 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences410–406 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences406–402 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences402–398 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences398–395 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences395–391 Mya — about 4 occurrences391–387 Mya — about 6 occurrences387–383 Mya — about 3 occurrences383–379 Mya — about 5 occurrences379–375 Mya — about 1 occurrence375–371 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences371–367 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences367–363 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences363–359 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences359–356 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences316–313 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences313–309 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences309–305 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences393.47 Mya315.2 Mya422 Mya305 Mya

24 occurrences of Onychodus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

24 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

17 formations

Windmill Limestone — 39.96°N, 116.58°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EColumbus Limestone — 39.82°N, 82.98°WColumbus Limestone — 41.45°N, 82.71°WKanawha — 38.00°N, 81.00°WCedar Valley — 42.47°N, 92.21°WDundee — 41.75°N, 82.63°WBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EBahram — 30.76°N, 57.03°EHagen-Balve — 51.37°N, 7.86°EBorov — 52.07°N, 27.74°EMartin — 35.25°N, 111.61°WGogo — 18.30°S, 126.50°EDundee Limestone — 42.25°N, 83.28°WGravel Point — 45.40°N, 84.92°WKush Yeilagh — 36.85°N, 55.35°EDelaware Limestone — 40.30°N, 83.07°WYam-Tesovo — 58.89°N, 30.56°E

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The named rock units Onychodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Onychodus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Onychodus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

282 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Onychodus, 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

19 references

Each of the 24 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. 7 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 content3

Picture of Onychodus

Credit
Kate Trinajstic; Derek E. G. Briggs; John A. Long
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Onychodus jandemarrai · wam:01.10.04

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itOnychodontidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newberry 1857