Trichomycteridae

Trichomycteridae is a family of catfishes commonly known as pencil catfishes or parasitic catfishes; though only certain species are parasitic, those are some of the few parasitic chordates known. This family is prohibited from being imported into various parts of the United States due to their reputation as parasites.

Trichomycteridae

Juliana Paulo Silva, Luisa Maria Sarmento-Soares, Lorena Tonini and Joelcio Freitas · CC BY 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
LoricarioideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Siluriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Siluriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Siluriformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Siluriformes

Time the record covers

At most 1.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5 Mya and 3.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesPliocene5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.0–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5 Mya3.3 Mya

4 occurrences of Trichomycteridae on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

4 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

1 formation

Monte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°W

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

Trichomycteridae and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Trichomycteridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

107 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Trichomycteridae, 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

2 references

Each of the 4 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 content2

Picture of Trichomycteridae

Credit
Juliana Paulo Silva, Luisa Maria Sarmento-Soares, Lorena Tonini and Joelcio Freitas
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Trichomycteridae (Vandelliinae?) · ANSP:FISH:197760

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 itLoricarioidei through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.