Priscomyzon riniensis

Priscomyzon is a genus of extinct lamprey that lived around 360 million years ago during the Famennian in a marine or estuarine environment in South Africa. This small agnathan is anatomically similar to the Mazon Creek lampreys, but is some 35 million years older. Its key developments included the first known large oral disc, circumoral teeth and a branchial basket.

Priscomyzon riniensis

Robert Gess · 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
Sits inside
PriscomyzonPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At most 14 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 372.15 Mya and 358.86 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Devonian — about 1 of 1 occurrenceDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 1 occurrence372–372 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences372–371 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences371–371 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences371–370 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences370–370 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences370–369 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences369–369 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences369–368 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences368–368 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences368–367 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences367–367 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences367–366 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences366–366 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences366–366 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences366–365 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences365–365 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences365–364 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences364–364 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences364–363 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences363–363 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences363–362 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences362–362 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences362–361 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences361–361 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences361–360 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences360–360 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences360–359 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences359–359 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences372.6 Mya358.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Priscomyzon riniensis on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

1 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

1 formation

Witpoort — 33.32°S, 26.54°E

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

Priscomyzon riniensis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Priscomyzon riniensis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

22 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Priscomyzon riniensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Priscomyzon riniensis

Credit
Robert Gess
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Priscomyzon riniensis 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 itPriscomyzon through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gess et al. 2006