Priacanthus

Priacanthus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Priacanthidae, the bigeyes. As of 2026 there are 14 extant species in the genus.

Priacanthus

Uncredited · 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
PriacanthidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 6.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 8 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.3 Mya20.45 Mya34.5 Mya4.8 Mya

8 occurrences of Priacanthus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

8 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

3 formations

Menelite — 49.93°N, 22.02°EPshekha Horizon — 44.74°N, 39.81°ENan-Chuang — 23.75°N, 120.87°E

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The named rock units Priacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Priacanthus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Priacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

471 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Priacanthus, 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

8 references

Each of the 8 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 Priacanthus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Priacanthus 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 itPriacanthidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Oken 1817