Alepocephalidae

Slickheads, also known as nakedheads or smoothheads, are deep water fishes that belong to the family Alepocephalidae. They are most commonly found in the bathypelagic layer, which is approximately 3,000 metres (9,840 ft) below the surface. They get their name from the lack of scales on their heads. Similarly, the scientific name is from the Greek ᾰ̓- (a-, "not"); λέπος (lepos, "scale"); and κεφαλή (kephalē, "head"). It has about 22 genera with ca. 96 species.

Alepocephalidae

NOAA/MBARI · Public Domain · 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
AlepocephaliformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 31 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 129 ka.

Eocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 10 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences33.9 Mya2.58 Mya38.5 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Alepocephalidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

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

2 formations

Pshekha Horizon — 44.54°N, 41.94°ESant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°E

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The named rock units Alepocephalidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alepocephalidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Alepocephalidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

254 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Alepocephalidae, 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

7 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 Alepocephalidae

Credit
NOAA/MBARI
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alepocephalidae 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 itAlepocephaliformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.