Alestidae

African tetras are a group of characiform fish found exclusively in Africa. This family contains about 18 genera and 119 species. Among the best known members are the Congo tetra and African tigerfish; both are kept in aquaria, and tigerfish are utilized for food and as gamefish.

Alestidae

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
AlestoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Characiformes

Time the record covers

At least 39 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 6 of 82 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 82 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 22 of 82 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 23 of 82 occurrencesPleistocene — about 27 of 82 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 13 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 26 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences41.03 Mya1.8 Mya49 Mya0 Mya

82 occurrences of Alestidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

82 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

18 formations

Koobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.22°N, 36.43°EKoobi Fora — 3.95°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.89°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 3.75°N, 36.36°EKoobi Fora — 3.73°N, 36.43°EKoobi Fora — 3.70°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.22°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.57°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENachukui — 4.25°N, 35.79°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENyakabingo — 1.00°N, 30.50°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°ENyabusosi — 1.00°N, 30.50°EWembere-Manonga — 3.88°S, 33.72°EKakara — 1.00°N, 30.50°ELokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°ENsungwe — 8.90°S, 33.45°EMuluk — 30.42°N, 30.25°EKaiso Village — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ELusso Beds — 0.03°N, 29.62°EMaradah — 28.58°N, 19.90°E

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The named rock units Alestidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alestidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Alestidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

569 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 79 sites for Alestidae, 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

37 references

Each of the 82 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. 25 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 Alestidae

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

No 3D scan of Alestidae 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 itAlestoidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.