Acrotemnus

Acrotemnus is an extinct genus of marine pycnodontid ray-finned fish known from Europe, North America, and Africa during the Turonian stage of the Upper Cretaceous. North American species could reach comparatively giant sizes for pycnodonts.

Acrotemnus

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London · 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
PycnodontidaePBDB
Diet
durophage, carnivorePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes

Time the record covers

At most 35 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 5 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 5 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–78 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 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101.2 Mya65.3 Mya

5 occurrences of Acrotemnus 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

5 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

3 formations

Boquillas — 29.25°N, 103.01°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EGongila — 10.94°N, 11.45°E

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The named rock units Acrotemnus 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.

Acrotemnus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

79 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Acrotemnus, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 Acrotemnus

Credit
The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acrotemnus 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 itPycnodontidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1837