Osteolepiformes

Osteolepiformes, also known as Osteolepidida, is a group of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which first appeared during the Devonian period. The order contains the families Canowindridae, Megalichthyidae, Osteolepididae and Tristichopteridae, in addition to several monotypic families. The order is generally considered to be paraphyletic because the characters that define it are mainly attributes of stem tetrapodomorphs.

Osteolepiformes

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
OsteolepididaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 410.62 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 413.02 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Devonian — about 41 of 59 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 13 of 59 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 5 of 59 occurrencesPermian416–411 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences411–406 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences406–401 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences401–397 Mya — about 2 occurrences397–392 Mya — about 2 occurrences392–387 Mya — about 4 occurrences387–382 Mya — about 15 occurrences382–377 Mya — about 4 occurrences377–373 Mya — about 3 occurrences373–368 Mya — about 2 occurrences368–363 Mya — about 4 occurrences363–358 Mya — about 3 occurrences358–353 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences353–349 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences349–344 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences344–339 Mya — about 1 occurrence339–334 Mya — about 2 occurrences334–329 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences329–324 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences324–320 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences320–315 Mya — about 2 occurrences315–310 Mya — about 2 occurrences310–305 Mya — about 1 occurrence305–300 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences300–296 Mya — about 1 occurrence296–291 Mya — about 1 occurrence291–286 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences286–281 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences281–276 Mya — about 1 occurrence276–272 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences410.62 Mya283.3 Mya416 Mya272 Mya

59 occurrences of Osteolepiformes 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

59 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

27 formations

Aztec Siltstone — 77.01°S, 161.77°EAztec Siltstone — 77.88°S, 159.61°EAztec Siltstone — 77.94°S, 160.43°EAztec Siltstone — 78.16°S, 159.10°EAztec Siltstone — 78.43°S, 158.68°EAztec Siltstone — 78.46°S, 158.75°EAztec Siltstone — 78.47°S, 158.87°EAztec Siltstone — 78.54°S, 158.43°EElbert — 37.50°N, 107.63°WElbert — 37.60°N, 107.80°WElbert — 37.54°N, 107.47°WCutler — 37.17°N, 109.85°WCatskill — 41.34°N, 77.68°WCatskill — 41.43°N, 77.10°WParting — 38.82°N, 106.74°WParting — 39.18°N, 106.82°WCorradigbee — 35.10°S, 148.65°EHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WSt. Louis — 41.32°N, 92.33°WKanawha — 38.00°N, 81.00°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°WGarber — 36.66°N, 97.69°WCuche — 6.58°N, 75.67°WDankov-Lebedyan Beds — 52.97°N, 36.07°EWitpoort — 33.32°S, 26.54°EGullane — 55.98°N, 3.21°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.14°N, 3.09°WLimestone Coal — 55.92°N, 4.33°WRaymond — 22.88°S, 146.82°EBoyd Volcanic Complex — 36.94°S, 149.82°EKetleri — 56.59°N, 22.01°EPosongchong — 27.40°N, 103.80°ETurgenevo — 52.90°N, 36.03°ETērvete — 56.46°N, 23.25°EHollands Creek Rhyodacite — 36.76°S, 146.07°E

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The named rock units Osteolepiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Osteolepiformes and its relatives

Devonian

Where Osteolepiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

390 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Osteolepiformes, 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

33 references

Each of the 59 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. 21 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 Osteolepiformes

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Osteolepiformes 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 itOsteolepidida through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Berg 1937