Thunnus thynnus

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna, giant bluefin tuna, and formerly as the tunny.

Thunnus thynnus

Unknown author Unknown author · 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
ThunnusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 5 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences13.82 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

5 occurrences of Thunnus thynnus 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

5 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

3 formations

Rosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°E

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The named rock units Thunnus thynnus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thunnus thynnus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Thunnus thynnus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

556 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Thunnus thynnus, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Thunnus thynnus

Credit
Unknown author Unknown author
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Thunnus thynnus · MCZ:Ich:161435

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itThunnus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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