Argentinidae

The herring smelts or argentines are a family, Argentinidae, of marine smelts. They are similar in appearance to smelts but have much smaller mouths.

Argentinidae

Gervais et Boulart · 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
Sits inside
ArgentiniformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 110 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 14 of 110 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 110 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 41 of 110 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 40 of 110 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 110 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 110 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 11 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 9 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 12 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 11 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 5 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 8 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 5 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 8 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 8 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences66 Mya129 ka74 Mya0 Mya

110 occurrences of Argentinidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

110 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

30 formations

Boom Clay — 51.13°N, 4.26°EBoom Clay — 51.09°N, 4.40°EBoom Clay — 51.19°N, 4.32°EMount Harris — 44.20°S, 170.71°EMount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°EMount Harris — 45.13°S, 170.96°EMount Harris — 44.30°S, 170.99°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°ELellinge Greensand — 55.63°N, 12.62°ELellinge Greensand — 55.71°N, 12.60°EMenilite — 49.49°N, 17.79°EMenilite — 49.20°N, 17.20°EMenilite — 49.41°N, 17.75°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.85°S, 170.52°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.66°S, 170.65°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°ERupel — 51.22°N, 12.33°ESevern — 38.89°N, 76.85°WDabakhana Svita — 41.72°N, 44.83°EMenelite — 49.93°N, 22.02°EMenelitic — 49.55°N, 17.67°ELa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.65°WKiscell Clay — 47.85°N, 20.48°EBassevelde Sand — 51.08°N, 4.35°ELindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WAgatdal — 70.58°N, 53.10°WRifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°EWaihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°EWaioha Shellbeds — 34.50°S, 172.96°EOtekaeike Limestone — 44.81°S, 170.53°ESlip Point Siltstone — 46.03°S, 167.71°ECalamity Point Sandstone — 46.03°S, 167.71°ENavidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°W

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The named rock units Argentinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Argentinidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Argentinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

1,887 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 97 sites for Argentinidae, 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

44 references

Each of the 110 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. 32 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 Argentinidae

Credit
Gervais et Boulart
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Argentinidae 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 itArgentiniformes through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1838