Thelodonti

Thelodonti is a class of extinct Palaeozoic jawless fishes with distinctive scales instead of large plates of armor. These fish lived in both freshwater and marine environments, first appearing during the Late Ordovician, and perishing shortly after the Frasnian–Famennian extinction event in the Late Devonian.

Thelodonti

Philippe Janvier · CC BY 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
ThelodontomorphiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 355 million years on record.

The record covers at least 449.6 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 458.2 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Ordovician — about 9 of 757 occurrencesSilurian — about 590 of 757 occurrencesDevonian — about 156 of 757 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 757 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 757 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 757 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 757 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 757 occurrences466–453 Mya — about 2 occurrences453–440 Mya — about 20 occurrences440–427 Mya — about 128 occurrences427–414 Mya — about 542 occurrences414–402 Mya — about 35 occurrences402–389 Mya — about 14 occurrences389–376 Mya — about 9 occurrences376–363 Mya — about 4 occurrences363–351 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences449.6 Mya93.9 Mya466 Mya82 Mya

757 occurrences of Thelodonti on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

757 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

151 formations

Downton Castle Sandstone — 52.37°N, 2.73°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.57°N, 2.48°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.20°N, 3.00°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.00°N, 3.00°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.45°N, 2.12°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.93°N, 4.37°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.05°N, 2.70°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.47°N, 1.88°WUpper Whitcliffe — 52.93°N, 4.37°WUpper Whitcliffe — 52.47°N, 1.88°WUpper Whitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.70°WUpper Whitcliffe — 52.05°N, 2.70°WUpper Whitcliffe — 52.05°N, 2.57°WLudlow Bone Bed — 51.96°N, 3.74°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.00°N, 2.52°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.03°N, 2.63°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.54°N, 2.62°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.47°N, 2.73°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.27°N, 2.38°WLudlow Bone Bed — 52.43°N, 3.01°WWhitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.72°WWhitcliffe — 52.53°N, 2.63°WWhitcliffe — 52.45°N, 2.72°WWhitcliffe — 52.07°N, 2.35°WWhitcliffe — 51.58°N, 1.87°WWhitcliffe — 52.45°N, 2.12°WWhitcliffe — 51.70°N, 2.45°WWhitcliffe — 52.05°N, 2.57°WWhitcliffe — 52.93°N, 4.37°WWhitcliffe — 52.43°N, 2.75°WFraenkelryggen — 79.67°N, 12.37°ECape Phillips — 75.62°N, 94.47°WCape Phillips — 75.76°N, 94.39°WCape Phillips — 75.80°N, 94.50°WHimmiste — 59.07°N, 24.79°EHimmiste — 58.27°N, 21.96°EHalla — 57.61°N, 18.80°EIvanie — 48.67°N, 25.76°EIvanie — 48.72°N, 25.63°EUst'-Spokojnaya — 79.50°N, 96.00°EBarlow Inlet — 75.04°N, 93.65°WSlot Burn — 55.65°N, 3.92°WSlot Burn — 55.60°N, 3.96°WPod''emnaya — 79.50°N, 96.00°EPod''emnaya — 79.67°N, 95.73°EBen Nevis — 79.63°N, 12.29°ETyver — 48.98°N, 25.71°ETyver — 49.07°N, 25.68°ETyver — 48.64°N, 25.73°ETahula — 58.36°N, 22.86°ETahula — 58.36°N, 23.86°ETahula — 58.13°N, 24.00°ETahula — 58.31°N, 22.61°ETahula — 58.25°N, 22.49°ETahula — 58.00°N, 22.03°EPagegiai — 56.89°N, 21.20°EElton — 52.55°N, 2.03°WElton — 52.37°N, 2.70°WChester Bjerg — 81.76°N, 61.77°WChester Bjerg — 81.75°N, 60.53°WUduvere Beds — 59.07°N, 24.79°EFish Bed — 55.52°N, 3.98°WFish Bed — 55.54°N, 3.94°WKrasnaya Bukhta — 79.87°N, 92.52°EKrasnaya Bukhta — 79.50°N, 96.00°ELower Whitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.70°WChortkiv — 49.03°N, 25.77°EChortkiv — 48.63°N, 25.86°E

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The named rock units Thelodonti has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 127 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 74 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thelodonti and its relatives

Silurian

Where Thelodonti and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

966 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 268 sites for Thelodonti, and this reads 240 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

97 references

Each of the 757 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. 85 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 content1

Picture of Thelodonti

Credit
Philippe Janvier
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thelodonti 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 itThelodontomorphi through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Jaekel 1911)