Orectolobidae

Wobbegong is the common name given to the 12 species of carpet shark in the family Orectolobidae. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, chiefly around Australia and Indonesia, although one species occurs as far north as Japan.

Orectolobidae

Uncredited · 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
wobbegongPBDB
Sits inside
OrectoloboideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Orectolobiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Orectolobiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Orectolobiformes

Time the record covers

At least 137 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 179 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 24 of 179 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 121 of 179 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 179 occurrencesEocene — about 25 of 179 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 179 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 179 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 179 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 179 occurrences152–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences132–127 Mya — about 4 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 3 occurrences112–106 Mya — about 5 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 9 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 10 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 5 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–81 Mya — about 27 occurrences81–76 Mya — about 28 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 27 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 24 occurrences66–61 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 8 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 7 occurrences46–41 Mya — about 6 occurrences41–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–30 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–5.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.1–0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145.06 Mya7.246 Mya152 Mya0 Mya

179 occurrences of Orectolobidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

179 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

54 formations

Mesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WMesaverde — 44.08°N, 107.74°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.75°WMesaverde — 44.17°N, 107.81°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 48.03°N, 109.01°WJudith River — 47.79°N, 108.94°WJudith River — 48.01°N, 108.91°WJudith River — 48.25°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 47.74°N, 108.96°WJudith River — 48.07°N, 108.93°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.92°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WSpeeton Clay — 54.16°N, 0.24°WSpeeton Clay — 54.16°N, 0.26°WMatam — 15.32°N, 13.03°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.46°N, 103.56°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WHunstanton — 54.15°N, 0.17°WHunstanton — 53.68°N, 0.50°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WPoint Lookout — 35.20°N, 107.05°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WNewhaven Chalk — 50.88°N, 0.81°WNewhaven Chalk — 51.53°N, 0.70°WNewhaven Chalk — 50.67°N, 1.10°WBurim — 49.71°N, 31.54°ECouche II — 32.85°N, 6.63°WCouche II — 32.81°N, 6.83°WCouche II — 32.65°N, 6.68°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WEutaw — 32.38°N, 84.93°WEutaw — 33.49°N, 88.39°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WJiesia — 55.06°N, 24.37°EEstratos de Quebrada Municipalidad — 33.37°S, 71.67°WLa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.67°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Orectolobidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Orectolobidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,596 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 157 sites for Orectolobidae, 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

79 references

Each of the 179 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. 67 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 content1

Picture of Orectolobidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Orectolobidae 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 itOrectoloboidei through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jordan and Fowler 1903