Trachichthyidae

Slimeheads, also known as roughies and redfish, are mostly small, exceptionally long-lived, deep-sea beryciform fish constituting the family Trachichthyidae, coming from the Ancient Greek τραχύς (trakhús), meaning "rough", and ἰχθύς (ikhthús), meaning "fish". Found in temperate to tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, the family comprises about 50 species in eight genera. Slimeheads are named for the network of muciferous canals riddling their heads.

Trachichthyidae

Uncredited · 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
TrachichthyiformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 73 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 73 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 6 of 73 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 8 of 73 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 73 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 36 of 73 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 73 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 73 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–92 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 1 occurrence62–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–24 Mya — about 5 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 9 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 5 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 8 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka103 Mya0 Mya

73 occurrences of Trachichthyidae 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

73 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

30 formations

Lellinge Greensand — 55.63°N, 12.62°ELellinge Greensand — 55.71°N, 12.60°EBells Creek Mudstone — 41.34°S, 175.46°EMooreville Chalk — 33.12°N, 88.26°WAlzey — 49.83°N, 7.72°ESevern — 38.89°N, 76.85°WPorters Creek — 32.02°N, 87.42°WLa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.65°WMenilite — 49.20°N, 17.20°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EBlanch Point — 35.25°S, 138.46°EAgatdal — 70.58°N, 53.10°WWaihao Greensand — 44.80°S, 170.98°EWaititi — 35.44°S, 173.30°EPakaurangi — 36.24°S, 174.28°EBells Creek Limestone — 41.33°S, 175.48°EChatton — 46.11°S, 168.80°EMount Harris — 45.21°S, 170.88°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°ESouthburn Sand — 44.37°S, 170.91°EMarnes de Saint-Etienne-d’Orthe — 43.57°N, 1.10°WSannine Limestone — 34.13°N, 35.75°ECalcare Massiccio — 42.93°N, 11.87°ERanquil — 37.59°S, 73.64°WChagres — 9.27°N, 80.06°W

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The named rock units Trachichthyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Trachichthyidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Trachichthyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,449 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 65 sites for Trachichthyidae, 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

34 references

Each of the 73 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. 22 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 Trachichthyidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Trachichthyidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itTrachichthyiformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bleeker 1859