Pachycormidae

Pachycormiformes is an extinct order of marine ray-finned fish known from the Early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. Depending on the treatment, it only includes a single family, Pachycormidae, or two families: the mostly filter-feeding Pachycormidae and the carnivorous Protosphyraenidae. They were characterized by having serrated pectoral fins, reduced pelvic fins and a bony rostrum. Pachycormiformes are morphologically diverse, containing both tuna and swordfish-like carnivorous forms, as well as edentulous suspension-feeding forms.

Pachycormidae

Ghedoghedo · 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
PachycormiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pachycormiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pachycormiformes

Time the record covers

At least 129 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 151 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 64 of 151 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 9 of 151 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 17 of 151 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 151 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 54 of 151 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 151 occurrences208–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences184–179 Mya — about 53 occurrences179–175 Mya — about 11 occurrences170–165 Mya — about 2 occurrences165–160 Mya — about 7 occurrences160–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 5 occurrences150–146 Mya — about 8 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 1 occurrence126–121 Mya — about 2 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 2 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 11 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 11 occurrences92–87 Mya — about 6 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 9 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 3 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 8 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences201.4 Mya72.2 Mya208 Mya63 Mya

151 occurrences of Pachycormidae on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

151 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

39 formations

Posidonienschiefer — 48.63°N, 9.51°EGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.04°N, 98.99°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.42°WFox Hills — 46.38°N, 100.75°WFox Hills — 46.29°N, 100.18°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.24°WOxford Clay — 53.54°N, 0.23°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WSolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.16°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°EBeacon Limstone — 50.93°N, 2.91°WNusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°EKuwajima — 36.17°N, 136.63°EMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.84°N, 87.89°WPosidonia Shale — 48.65°N, 9.53°ECalcaire de Creully — 49.29°N, 0.49°WCalcaire de Creully — 49.12°N, 0.16°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EAbrek — 44.08°N, 42.02°EAbrek — 43.99°N, 42.17°EPolpino — 51.97°N, 35.95°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WDakota — 38.92°N, 98.50°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WCalcare di Sogno — 45.83°N, 9.30°ELa Cabaña — 43.34°N, 5.84°WEagle Ford — 31.53°N, 97.21°WTrossingen — 51.90°N, 11.07°E

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The named rock units Pachycormidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pachycormidae and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Pachycormidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

924 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 113 sites for Pachycormidae, 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

70 references

Each of the 151 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. 58 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 content2

Picture of Pachycormidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pachycormidae indet. · nhmuk:pal:pv or 33219

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 itPachycormiformes through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodward 1895