Salmonidae

Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon, trout, char, graylings, freshwater whitefishes, taimens and lenoks, all coldwater mid-level predatory fish that inhabit the subarctic and cool temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The Atlantic salmon, whose Latin name became that of its genus Salmo, is also the eponym of the family and order names.

Salmonidae

U.S. Geological Survey · 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
Sits inside
SalmoniformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Salmoniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Salmoniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Salmoniformes

Time the record covers

At least 119 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 81 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 81 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 81 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 81 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 81 occurrencesMiocene — about 19 of 81 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 81 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 81 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences120–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–70 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–8.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.3–4.1 Mya — about 15 occurrences4.1–0 Mya — about 48 occurrences119.57 Mya11.7 ka124 Mya0 Mya

81 occurrences of Salmonidae on record. 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

81 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

19 formations

San Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WPinole Tuff — 37.97°N, 122.25°WPinole Tuff — 38.01°N, 122.30°WPrince Creek — 70.02°N, 151.59°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WSanta Margarita — 37.01°N, 122.01°WSanta Margarita — 36.97°N, 122.06°WHaughton — 75.41°N, 89.43°WGlenns Ferry — 42.82°N, 114.95°WGlenns Ferry — 42.84°N, 116.10°WKlondike Mountain — 48.66°N, 118.75°WKlondike Mountain — 48.88°N, 118.87°WAlturas — 41.49°N, 120.65°WAlturas — 40.16°N, 120.27°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WDrakes Bay — 37.99°N, 123.00°WLellinge Greensand — 55.71°N, 12.60°EMehrten — 37.60°N, 120.80°WWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°WSan Antonio — 37.75°N, 122.13°WLatah — 46.99°N, 116.28°WMadras — 44.76°N, 121.09°WYonna — 42.05°N, 121.87°WChalk Hills — 43.64°N, 117.11°WEsmeralda — 37.50°N, 117.56°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Salmonidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

1,013 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 68 sites for Salmonidae, 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

44 references

Each of the 81 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. 32 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 content2

Picture of Salmonidae

Credit
U.S. Geological Survey
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Salmonidae indet. · UMMP:VP:74157

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 itSalmoniformes through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1816