Amyzon

Amyzon is an extinct genus of cypriniform fish in the sucker family Catostomidae first described in 1872 by E. D. Cope. There are six valid species in the genus. Amyzon are found in North American fossil sites dated from the Early Eocene in Montana and Washington USA, as well as the British Columbian sites at McAbee Fossil Beds, Driftwood Canyon, and the "Horsefly shales", as well as Early Oligocene sites in Nevada USA. One Middle Eocene species is known from the Xiawanpu Formation of China. The Ypresian species A. brevipinne of the Allenby Formation was redescribed in 2021 and moved to a separate monotypic genus Wilsonium.

Amyzon

Kevmin · 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
CatostomidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cypriniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Cypriniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cypriniformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Cypriniformes

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 15 occurrencesEocene — about 14 of 15 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 15 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 15 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–45 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.07 Mya33.9 Mya56.7 Mya22.4 Mya

15 occurrences of Amyzon on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

15 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

7 formations

Green River — 41.61°N, 109.39°WGreen River — 42.07°N, 110.09°WGreen River — 41.63°N, 109.50°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WAllenby — 49.48°N, 120.73°WAllenby — 49.37°N, 120.59°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WClarno — 44.53°N, 120.36°WKlondike Mountain — 48.88°N, 118.87°WXiawuanpu — 27.62°N, 112.23°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amyzon 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.

Amyzon and its relatives

Eocene

Where Amyzon and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

227 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Amyzon, 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

9 references

Each of the 15 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 content2

Picture of Amyzon

Credit
Kevmin
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itCatostomidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1872