Pleuronectiformes

Flatfish are a group of ray-finned fish belonging to the suborder Pleuronectoidei of the order Carangiformes. Their collective common name is due to their habit of lying on one side of their laterally-compressed body upon the seafloor; in this position, both eyes lie on the side of the head facing upwards, while the other side of the head and body lies on the substrate. This loss of symmetry, a unique adaptation in vertebrates, stems from one eye "migrating" towards the other during the juvenile's metamorphosis. Due to interspecific variation, some species tend to face their left side upward, some their right side, and others face either side upward; members of Pleuronectidae lie on their left side, with eyes on the right, Paralichthyidae lie on their right side, with eyes on the left, while the "primitive" genus Psettodes may develop into "right-facing" or "left-facing" individuals.

Pleuronectiformes

Liné1 · 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
Also called
flatfishPBDB
Sits inside
CarangariaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 473 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 473 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 473 occurrencesEocene — about 54 of 473 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 48 of 473 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 214 of 473 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 63 of 473 occurrencesPleistocene — about 85 of 473 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 6 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 12 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 18 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 14 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 14 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 19 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 27 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 51 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 55 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 43 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 79 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 130 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

473 occurrences of Pleuronectiformes on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

473 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

85 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WRaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WNavidad — 33.91°S, 71.84°WNavidad — 33.94°S, 71.85°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WGatun — 9.36°N, 79.84°WPort Orford — 42.81°N, 124.53°WPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.56°WRifle Butts — 45.12°S, 170.93°ERifle Butts — 45.08°S, 170.95°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°EMount Harris — 44.20°S, 170.71°EMount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°EMount Harris — 45.13°S, 170.96°EMount Harris — 44.30°S, 170.99°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°ESouthburn Sand — 44.30°S, 171.00°ESouthburn Sand — 44.37°S, 170.91°EBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WRifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°EHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°ELacui — 41.75°S, 73.84°WLacui — 42.69°S, 74.12°WGutingkeng — 23.00°N, 120.42°EGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°ESan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WBarton Beds — 50.78°N, 1.73°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.51°WCook Mountain — 30.61°N, 96.57°WCook Mountain — 31.33°N, 95.52°WOnzole — 0.87°N, 79.89°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WByram — 31.57°N, 88.04°WStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WStone City — 30.67°N, 96.56°W

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The named rock units Pleuronectiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 61 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 228 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pleuronectiformes and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pleuronectiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

4,222 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 229 sites for Pleuronectiformes, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

133 references

Each of the 473 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. 121 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 Pleuronectiformes

Credit
Liné1
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pleuronectiformes was found in Sketchfab.

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 itCarangaria through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.