Osteoglossidae

Osteoglossidae is a family of large-sized freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas. They are commonly known as bonytongues. The family has been regarded as containing two extant subfamilies Arapaiminae and Osteoglossinae, with a total of five living genera, but these are regarded as valid families in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes The extinct Phareodontinae are known from worldwide during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene; they are generally considered to be crown group osteoglossids that are more closely related to one of the extant osteoglossid subfamilies than the other, though their exact position varies.

Osteoglossidae

Viktor Kravtchenko · CC BY 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
Also called
arowanaPBDB
Sits inside
OsteoglossiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteoglossiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Osteoglossiformes

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 137.05 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 76 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 23 of 76 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 8 of 76 occurrencesEocene — about 29 of 76 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 76 occurrencesMiocene — about 5 of 76 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 76 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 76 occurrences140–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence84–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–70 Mya — about 8 occurrences70–65 Mya — about 13 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 5 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 11 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 7 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 6 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–4.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka140 Mya0 Mya

76 occurrences of Osteoglossidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

76 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

44 formations

Green River — 41.77°N, 110.75°WGreen River — 41.87°N, 110.68°WGreen River — 41.48°N, 109.47°WGreen River — 42.37°N, 110.62°WGreen River — 41.84°N, 110.70°WNachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EKuldana — 33.62°N, 71.92°EKuldana — 33.60°N, 72.20°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WAshley — 32.95°N, 80.18°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WLondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EKuwajima — 36.17°N, 136.63°EWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WAdamantina — 21.94°S, 51.37°WAkli — 26.07°N, 71.27°EYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WEl Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WSanta Lucía — 18.03°S, 65.58°WTakli — 21.15°N, 79.10°ETuscahoma — 32.40°N, 88.69°WLokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°EAshawaq — 17.00°N, 53.00°EBridger — 42.11°N, 109.45°W

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The named rock units Osteoglossidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Osteoglossidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Osteoglossidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,449 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 68 sites for Osteoglossidae, 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

53 references

Each of the 76 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. 41 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 Osteoglossidae

Credit
Viktor Kravtchenko
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itOsteoglossiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1832