Stenobrachius leucopsarus

The northern lampfish, also known as smallfin lanternfish, is a small oceanic fish in the family Myctophidae. First described by husband and wife ichthyologists Carl H. and Rosa Smith Eigenmann in 1890, it is named for the numerous small round photophores that line the ventral surface of its head and body.

Stenobrachius leucopsarus

Andrew Harmer · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
northern lampfishPBDB
Sits inside
StenobrachiusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 4 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 10 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence137 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.58 Mya129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Stenobrachius leucopsarus 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

10 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

9 formations

Pico — 33.59°N, 117.85°WPico — 34.05°N, 118.24°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.81°N, 117.89°WLomita Marl — 33.75°N, 118.30°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WMiyata — 35.19°N, 39.65°ESan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WNiguel — 33.64°N, 117.89°W

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

Stenobrachius leucopsarus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Stenobrachius leucopsarus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

598 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Stenobrachius leucopsarus, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 Stenobrachius leucopsarus

Source
GBIF
Credit
Andrew Harmer
Licence
CC BY-NC 4.0
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Stenobrachius leucopsarus · SIO:Marine Vertebrates:11-250

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 itStenobrachius through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Eigenmann and Eigenmann 1890)