Priscacara

Priscacara is a genus of extinct temperate bass described from Early to Middle Eocene fossils. It is characterized by a sunfish-like body and its stout dorsal and anal spines. The genus is best known from the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Mass deaths of Priscacara suggest it formed schools.

Priscacara

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PriscacaridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 5 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 5 occurrencesEocene73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences66 Mya48.07 Mya72.9 Mya37 Mya

5 occurrences of Priscacara on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

5 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

4 formations

Green River — 41.77°N, 110.75°WRoslyn — 47.25°N, 121.12°WRavenscrag — 49.60°N, 108.70°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°W

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The named rock units Priscacara has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Priscacara and its relatives

Eocene

Where Priscacara and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

111 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Priscacara, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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 content2

Picture of Priscacara

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPriscacaridae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1877