Ophidion

Ophidion is a genus of cusk-eels.

Ophidion

Etrusko25 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
OphidiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, parasitePBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ophidiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 4 of 22 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene — about 13 of 22 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.2–2.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences37.71 Mya129 ka41.9 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Ophidion on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

22 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

7 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WLindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WTamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WMount Hillaby — 13.21°N, 59.59°W

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The named rock units Ophidion has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ophidion and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ophidion and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,549 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Ophidion, 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

12 references

Each of the 22 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 Ophidion

Credit
Etrusko25
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nerophis ophidion · YPM:VZ:YPM ICH 003569

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 itOphidiidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)