Plethodidae

Plethodidae is an extinct family of teleost fish that existed during the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils are known from North America, North Africa, and Europe.

Plethodidae

Fishboy86164577 · 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
TselfatiiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Tselfatiiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Tselfatiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Tselfatiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 66 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 61.66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 62 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 61 of 62 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 62 occurrencesPaleocene101–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 6 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 6 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 6 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 6 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 5 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 5 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 5 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 3 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 6 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences68–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93.9 Mya66 Mya101.3 Mya60.9 Mya

62 occurrences of Plethodidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

62 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

21 formations

Greenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.34°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.04°N, 98.99°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.92°N, 98.90°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.38°WScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.65°N, 11.31°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.85°N, 11.86°ENiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 43.41°N, 103.31°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WBahariya — 28.41°N, 28.90°EHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°ECarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.13°N, 99.32°WMooreville Chalk — 32.94°N, 88.06°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WAgua Nueva — 20.13°N, 97.63°WAgua Nueva — 26.75°N, 100.05°WZig Zag Chalk — 53.68°N, 0.50°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WPierre Shale — 49.22°N, 98.20°WPierre Shale — 44.00°N, 103.25°WClayton — 37.18°N, 89.07°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WAustin Chalk — 32.70°N, 96.90°WBritton — 32.96°N, 96.99°WMexcala — 18.64°N, 99.48°WHesseltal — 52.08°N, 8.35°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WCarlile — 52.32°N, 101.24°W

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The named rock units Plethodidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plethodidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

419 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 52 sites for Plethodidae, 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

37 references

Each of the 62 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. 25 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 Plethodidae

Credit
Fishboy86164577
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Plethodidae 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 itTselfatiiformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Loomis 1900