Acanthuridae

The Acanthuridae are a family of ray-finned fishes, which includes surgeonfishes, tangs, and unicornfishes. The family includes about 86 extant species of marine fishes living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs. Many of the species are brightly colored and popular in aquaria.

Acanthuridae

Uncredited · 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
AcanthuriformesPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB
Motility
fast-movingPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 66 occurrencesEocene — about 39 of 66 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 66 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 66 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 66 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 66 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 4 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 9 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 9 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.5–7.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Acanthuridae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

66 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

7 formations

Lagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.28°WLagos-Portimão — 37.12°N, 8.54°WLagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.67°WStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.98°EMatt — 49.98°N, 9.15°ETonasa — 5.05°S, 119.69°ERío Banano — 9.92°N, 83.55°WMakrilia — 35.04°N, 25.76°EGoose Creek — 32.83°N, 79.99°W

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The named rock units Acanthuridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 56 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acanthuridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Acanthuridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

661 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Acanthuridae, 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

19 references

Each of the 66 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. 7 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 Acanthuridae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acanthuridae 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 itAcanthuriformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.