Anguilliformes

Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes, which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage and are usually predators.

Anguilliformes

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
eelPBDB
Sits inside
ElopomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 110 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 661 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 33 of 661 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 661 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 233 of 661 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 75 of 661 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 200 of 661 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 37 of 661 occurrencesPleistocene — about 62 of 661 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–108 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences108–104 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 2 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 14 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 9 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 9 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 12 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 26 occurrences50–46 Mya — about 43 occurrences46–42 Mya — about 46 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 64 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 36 occurrences35–31 Mya — about 14 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 15 occurrences27–23 Mya — about 51 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 33 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 87 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 32 occurrences12–7.7 Mya — about 26 occurrences7.7–3.8 Mya — about 46 occurrences3.8–0 Mya — about 83 occurrences110.1 Mya11.7 ka115 Mya0 Mya

661 occurrences of Anguilliformes on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

661 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

114 formations

Moodys Branch — 32.32°N, 90.16°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 34.81°N, 88.21°WMoodys Branch — 32.18°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.90°N, 88.69°WMoodys Branch — 31.89°N, 88.39°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.51°WCook Mountain — 30.61°N, 96.57°WCook Mountain — 31.33°N, 95.52°WCook Mountain — 32.03°N, 88.70°WMount Harris — 44.20°S, 170.71°EMount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.21°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.14°S, 170.94°EMount Harris — 45.13°S, 170.96°EMount Harris — 44.30°S, 170.99°EMount Harris — 44.49°S, 171.01°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WMiretrain Marl — 43.56°N, 1.11°WWaihao Greensand — 44.80°S, 170.98°EWaihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°EYazoo — 31.66°N, 92.90°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WSannine Limestone — 34.13°N, 35.75°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WGatun — 9.36°N, 79.84°WNavidad — 33.95°S, 71.87°WNavidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°WStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WStone City — 30.67°N, 96.56°WBashi — 32.35°N, 88.68°WBashi — 31.93°N, 87.87°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 37.75°N, 77.33°WNanjemoy — 38.72°N, 76.93°WNanjemoy — 38.42°N, 77.00°WSouthburn Sand — 44.42°S, 170.89°ESouthburn Sand — 44.30°S, 171.00°EPiney Point — 37.61°N, 76.76°W“upper” Lisbon — 31.82°N, 88.24°WLindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EChatton — 46.12°S, 168.79°ERosefield — 31.89°N, 92.00°WPort Campbell Limestone — 37.72°S, 141.93°EPort Campbell Limestone — 38.62°S, 142.98°ECantaure — 11.97°N, 70.02°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WRifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°ERifle Butts — 45.08°S, 170.95°ERifle Butts — 45.12°S, 170.93°E

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The named rock units Anguilliformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 90 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 309 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anguilliformes and its relatives

Eocene

Where Anguilliformes and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,932 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 323 sites for Anguilliformes, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

137 references

Each of the 661 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. 125 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 Anguilliformes

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anguilliformes 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 itElopomorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Greenwood et al. 1966