Acipenseridae

Sturgeon are the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous, and are descended from other, earlier acipenseriform fish, which date back to the Early Jurassic period, some 174 to 201 million years ago. They are one of two living families of the Acipenseriformes alongside paddlefish (Polyodontidae). Sturgeons are native to subtropical, temperate and sub-Arctic rivers, lakes and coastlines of Eurasia and North America. Sturgeons are long-lived, late-maturing fishes with distinctive characteristics, such as a heterocercal caudal fin similar to those of sharks, and an elongated, spindle-like body that is smooth-skinned, scaleless, and armored with five lateral rows of bony plates called scutes.

Acipenseridae

Duane Raver/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public Domain · via Wikidata/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
AcipenseriformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Acipenseriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acipenseriformes

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 85.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 87 of 142 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 142 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 11 of 142 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 142 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 142 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 142 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 142 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 9 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 13 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 13 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 13 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 16 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 17 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 12 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 3 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–8.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.7–5.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.8–2.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.9–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka87 Mya0 Mya

142 occurrences of Acipenseridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

142 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

42 formations

Dinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 47.75°N, 106.20°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 46.19°N, 103.40°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 41.58°N, 108.65°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WPrince Creek — 70.02°N, 151.59°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WLondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.27°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.53°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 48.56°N, 107.78°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.56°N, 113.43°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.67°N, 112.91°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°EMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WCapistrano — 33.63°N, 117.65°WCapistrano — 33.56°N, 117.71°WRavenscrag — 49.60°N, 108.70°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WGram — 55.31°N, 9.06°E

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The named rock units Acipenseridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acipenseridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

2,229 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 137 sites for Acipenseridae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

73 references

Each of the 142 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. 61 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 Acipenseridae

Credit
Duane Raver/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acipenseridae 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 itAcipenseriformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1831