Polyodontidae

Paddlefish are members of the ray-finned fish family Polyodontidae, which belong to the basal order Acipenseriformes, one of two living groups within this order alongside sturgeons (Acipenseridae). Their most distinctive feature is an elongated rostrum that enhances electroreception, allowing them to detect prey in murky water. Both recent and fossil paddlefish occur exclusively in North America and Eastern Asia.

Polyodontidae

Timothy Knepp · Public Domain · 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
paddlefishPBDB
Sits inside
AcipenseriformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acipenseriformes

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 51.1 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 44 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 38 of 44 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 44 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 44 occurrencesEocene127–125 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–119 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–91 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 6 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 6 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 6 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 6 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 3 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121.4 Mya56 Mya127 Mya50 Mya

44 occurrences of Polyodontidae 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

44 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

15 formations

Dinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.75°N, 106.20°WYixian — 41.20°N, 119.23°EYixian — 41.17°N, 119.40°EYixian — 41.42°N, 118.97°EPrince Creek — 70.02°N, 151.59°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.53°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EWhitemud — 49.61°N, 105.75°WWhitemud — 49.62°N, 105.78°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.51°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Polyodontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

525 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Polyodontidae, 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

22 references

Each of the 44 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. 10 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 Polyodontidae

Credit
Timothy Knepp
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Polyodontidae 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 itAcipenseriformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1838