Alopias superciliosus

The bigeye thresher is a species of thresher shark, family Alopiidae, found in temperate and tropical oceans worldwide. Like the other thresher sharks, nearly half its total length consists of the elongated upper lobe of the tail fin. Its common name comes from its enormous eyes, which are placed in keyhole-shaped sockets that allow them to be rotated upward. This species can also be distinguished by a pair of deep grooves on the top of its head, from which its scientific name is derived.

Alopias superciliosus

PIRO-NOAA Observer Program · 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
Also called
bigeye thresherPBDB
Sits inside
AlopiasPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 29 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 29 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 21 of 29 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 29 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 29 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.6–8.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.5–7.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.4–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.1–3.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27.3 Mya3.6 Mya34.5 Mya2 Mya

29 occurrences of Alopias superciliosus 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

29 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

17 formations

Menilite — 49.20°N, 17.20°EChucunaque — 9.14°N, 78.75°WEsbarrondadoiro — 38.11°N, 8.36°WEsbarrondadoiro — 39.30°N, 8.12°WChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.63°WCubagua — 10.60°N, 64.24°WMenilite — 49.83°N, 22.17°EMenilite — 49.54°N, 22.30°EPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WTrent — 35.07°N, 77.15°WHolmsk — 47.80°N, 142.08°ESekinobana — 37.21°N, 136.69°EUscari — 9.57°N, 82.57°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WUitpa — 12.03°N, 71.43°WMenilitic — 49.64°N, 18.73°ENavidad — 33.91°S, 71.84°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°ETunga — 14.27°S, 76.05°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Alopias superciliosus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alopias superciliosus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Alopias superciliosus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

472 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Alopias superciliosus, 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

21 references

Each of the 29 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. 9 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 Alopias superciliosus

Credit
PIRO-NOAA Observer Program
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alopias superciliosus 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 itAlopias through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lowe 1840)