Osteolepis

Osteolepis is an extinct genus of lobe-finned fish from the Devonian period. It lived in Lake Orcadie of northern Scotland.

Osteolepis

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
OsteolepididaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Devonian — about 17 of 17 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 17 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 1 occurrence393–392 Mya — about 3 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 3 occurrences391–389 Mya — about 3 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 3 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences387–386 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences386–385 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences379–377 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences377–376 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences376–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–374 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–373 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences373–371 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences371–370 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences370–369 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences369–368 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences368–367 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences367–365 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences365–364 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences364–363 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences363–362 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences362–361 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences361–359 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences359–358 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387.95 Mya372.15 Mya394.2 Mya358.2 Mya

17 occurrences of Osteolepis 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

17 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

9 formations

Rousay — 59.13°N, 3.15°WRousay — 58.91°N, 2.79°WRousay — 59.04°N, 2.87°WRousay — 59.24°N, 2.88°WRousay — 58.83°N, 3.11°WRousay — 59.16°N, 3.10°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WCatskill — 41.81°N, 77.78°WChemung — 41.68°N, 76.71°WUpper Stromness Flagstones — 59.08°N, 3.32°WCrosskirk Bay — 57.61°N, 3.12°WHam-Scarfskerry Flagstone — 58.62°N, 3.59°WBerriedale Flagstone — 58.57°N, 3.47°WMey Flagstone — 58.60°N, 3.53°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Osteolepis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Osteolepis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Osteolepis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

42 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Osteolepis, 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

4 references

Each of the 17 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 Osteolepis

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itOsteolepididae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Valenciennes 1829