Polymerichthys

Polymerichthys is an extinct genus of superficially eel-like aulopiform fish known from the late Oligocene to the middle-late Miocene. It contains a single described species, P. nagurai from the Middle Miocene of Japan, though several indeterminate specimens are also known from Russia and Italy.

Polymerichthys

Apokryltaros · 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
PolymerichthyidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Aulopiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Aulopiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Aulopiformes

Time the record covers

At least 7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.04 Mya15.98 Mya27.8 Mya4.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Polymerichthys on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

4 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

2 formations

Kurasi — 47.87°N, 142.10°ETubozawa — 34.97°N, 137.57°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Polymerichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Polymerichthys and its relatives

Miocene

Where Polymerichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

32 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Polymerichthys, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 content1

Picture of Polymerichthys

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itPolymerichthyidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Uyeno 1967