Tetraodon

Tetraodon is a genus in the pufferfish family (Tetraodontidae) found in freshwater in Africa. It is the type genus of the family and historically included numerous other species; several Asian species were moved to the genera Dichotomyctere, Leiodon and Pao in 2013. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek τετρα- (tetra-), meaning "four", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth", referring to the genus' four teeth.

Tetraodon

Tiia Monto · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
TetraodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Tetraodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Tetraodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Tetraodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 252 million years on record.

The record covers at least 254.14 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 259.857 Mya to 0 Mya.

Permian — about 6 of 36 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 36 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 36 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 36 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 36 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 36 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 36 occurrencesPliocene — about 7 of 36 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 36 occurrences265–256 Mya — about 4 occurrences256–247 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–8.8 Mya — about 8 occurrences8.8–0 Mya — about 20 occurrences254.14 Mya1.8 Mya265 Mya0 Mya

36 occurrences of Tetraodon on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

36 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

Koobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.22°N, 36.43°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.89°N, 36.29°EUsili — 10.25°S, 35.08°EUsili — 10.23°S, 35.05°EUsili — 10.20°S, 35.38°ENyabusosi — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ELagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.28°WLagos-Portimão — 37.12°N, 8.54°WLuanda — 8.76°S, 13.30°EUscari — 9.57°N, 82.57°WSaloum — 14.96°N, 17.05°W

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The named rock units Tetraodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tetraodon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Tetraodon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

457 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Tetraodon, 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

24 references

Each of the 36 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. 12 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 Tetraodon

Credit
Tiia Monto
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tetraodon nigroviridis · CAS:ICH:59576

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 itTetraodontidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758