Polypteridae

Bichirs and the reedfish comprise Polypteridae, a family of archaic ray-finned fishes and the only family in the order Polypteriformes.

Polypteridae

ばぶじ～ · 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
Also called
bichirPBDB
Sits inside
PolypteriformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 65 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 65 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 65 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 65 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 65 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 65 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 65 occurrencesPleistocene — about 27 of 65 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–101 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 3 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 4 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–69 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences40–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–7.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.2–3.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences3.6–0 Mya — about 36 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka108 Mya0 Mya

65 occurrences of Polypteridae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

65 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

Koobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.89°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.28°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.44°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.08°N, 36.35°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EBahariya — 28.43°N, 28.92°EBahariya — 28.42°N, 29.04°ELothagam 1 — 2.88°N, 36.07°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.88°N, 36.07°EMuluk — 30.42°N, 30.25°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WLothidok — 3.33°N, 35.75°EWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°ETurkana Grit — 2.33°N, 35.83°EGlib Zegdou — 30.00°N, 4.00°WEl Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WBaharîje — 28.33°N, 28.98°ELokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°EGrès rouges — 31.55°N, 2.43°WGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°EMaradah — 28.58°N, 19.90°E

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The named rock units Polypteridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Polypteridae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Polypteridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

702 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Polypteridae, 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 65 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 Polypteridae

Credit
ばぶじ～
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Polypteridae 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 itPolypteriformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1835