Apateodus

Apateodus is a genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish which was described by Woodward in 1901. It was a relative of modern lizardfish and lancetfish in the order Aulopiformes, and one of a number of prominent nektonic aulopiforms of Cretaceous marine ecosystems.

Apateodus

Ghedoghedo · 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
IchthyotringidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Aulopiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Aulopiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Aulopiformes

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 28 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 27 of 28 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 28 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 3 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–88 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 1 occurrence85–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya107.1 Mya65.2 Mya

28 occurrences of Apateodus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

28 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

14 formations

Niobrara — 38.90°N, 101.13°WNiobrara — 43.41°N, 103.31°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°ETakli — 21.15°N, 79.10°ECarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WKaskapau — 55.71°N, 117.60°WNew Pit — 51.37°N, 0.45°EInfratrappean Beds — 17.35°N, 77.70°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.95°ELower Chalk — 52.18°N, 0.17°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.79°EToolebuc — 20.65°S, 143.10°ESanta Marta — 63.91°S, 57.88°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Apateodus 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.

Apateodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Apateodus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

334 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Apateodus, 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

17 references

Each of the 28 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. 5 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 Apateodus

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

No 3D scan of Apateodus 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 itIchthyotringidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodward 1901