Osteoglossiformes

Osteoglossiformes, meaning "bony tongues" in Ancient Greek, is a relatively primitive order of ray-finned fish that contains two sub-orders, the Osteoglossoidei and the Notopteroidei. All of at least 245 living species inhabit freshwater. They are found in South America, Africa, Australia and southern Asia, having first evolved in Gondwana before that continent broke up. In 2008, several new species of marine osteoglossiforms were described from the Danish Eocene Fur Formation, dramatically increasing the diversity of this group. This implies that the Osteoglossomorpha is not a primary freshwater fish group with the osteoglossiforms having a typical Gondwana distribution.

Osteoglossiformes

User:Qwertzy2 · 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
OsteoglossomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 183 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 183 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 183 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 55 of 183 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 183 occurrencesEocene — about 37 of 183 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 183 occurrencesMiocene — about 24 of 183 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 13 of 183 occurrencesPleistocene — about 14 of 183 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 2 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 3 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 2 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 4 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 3 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 6 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 2 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 24 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 22 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 5 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 14 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 11 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 8 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 34 occurrences165.3 Mya11.7 ka172 Mya0 Mya

183 occurrences of Osteoglossiformes on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

183 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

68 formations

Koobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.89°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 3.75°N, 36.36°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.91°N, 36.38°EKoobi Fora — 4.15°N, 36.40°EHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WGreen 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°WNkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WThird — 33.83°N, 130.85°ENyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°EKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WLondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°ELondon Clay — 51.48°N, 0.25°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EKakara — 1.00°N, 30.50°EKuldana — 33.62°N, 71.92°EKuldana — 33.60°N, 72.20°EYixian — 41.57°N, 119.33°EYixian — 41.16°N, 119.31°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.07°N, 77.03°WLokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°EScollard — 51.95°N, 112.94°WScollard — 51.91°N, 112.97°WPaskapoo — 51.17°N, 114.04°WPaskapoo — 52.27°N, 113.59°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WAshley — 32.95°N, 80.18°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°W

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The named rock units Osteoglossiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 43 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Osteoglossiformes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

2,382 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 149 sites for Osteoglossiformes, 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

100 references

Each of the 183 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. 88 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 Osteoglossiformes

Credit
User:Qwertzy2
Licence
CC BY-SA 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 itOsteoglossomorpha through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Berg 1940