Tselfatia

Tselfatia is an extinct genus of Cretaceous bony fish. Originally described from Djebl Tselfat in Morocco, it has since been discovered at sites in several other countries. The type species, Tselfatia formosa, was named and described in 1943 by French paleontologist Camille Arambourg. A second species, T. dalmatica, was named in 1980 from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.

Tselfatia

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
PlethodidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Tselfatiiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Tselfatiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Tselfatiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 10 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 10 of 10 occurrencesLate Cretaceous101–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences93.9 Mya83.6 Mya101.1 Mya71.6 Mya

10 occurrences of Tselfatia on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

10 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

4 formations

Scaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.65°N, 11.31°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.85°N, 11.86°EAgua Nueva — 20.13°N, 97.63°WAgua Nueva — 26.75°N, 100.05°WAustin Chalk — 32.70°N, 96.90°WMexcala — 18.64°N, 99.48°W

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The named rock units Tselfatia 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.

Tselfatia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Tselfatia and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Tselfatia, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 Tselfatia

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tselfatia 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 itPlethodidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.