Aspidorhynchidae

Aspidorhynchidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fish from the Mesozoic Era. It is the only member of the monotypic order Aspidorhynchiformes. Members of the group are noted for their elongated, conical rostrums, of varying length, formed from fused premaxillae. The range of the group extends from the Middle Jurassic to the end of the Maastrichtian, with a potential record from the Late Paleocene. The family and order were described by Pieter Bleeker in 1859.

Aspidorhynchidae

Ghedoghedo · 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
Sits inside
AspidorhynchiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonic, depth=surfacePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 99 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 66 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 61.66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 5 of 172 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 16 of 172 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 27 of 172 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 123 of 172 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 172 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 2 occurrences167–163 Mya — about 2 occurrences163–159 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences159–156 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences156–152 Mya — about 1 occurrence152–148 Mya — about 7 occurrences148–144 Mya — about 7 occurrences144–141 Mya — about 1 occurrence141–137 Mya — about 1 occurrence137–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences133–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–119 Mya — about 5 occurrences119–115 Mya — about 6 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 5 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 3 occurrences108–104 Mya — about 2 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 4 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 15 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 12 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 5 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 9 occurrences82–78 Mya — about 14 occurrences78–74 Mya — about 14 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 19 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 25 occurrences67–63 Mya — about 7 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences165.3 Mya66 Mya170 Mya60 Mya

172 occurrences of Aspidorhynchidae 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

172 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

59 formations

Dinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.58°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WRomualdo — 7.51°S, 39.55°WRomualdo — 7.47°S, 39.76°WRomualdo — 7.43°S, 39.82°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WSolnhofen — 48.94°N, 8.41°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.18°EOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.70°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.53°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EAmeghino — 64.47°S, 58.97°WAmeghino — 64.33°S, 58.80°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.04°N, 98.99°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.92°N, 98.90°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WAllen — 40.73°S, 67.17°WAllen — 39.78°S, 66.70°WStarigrad Limestone — 43.19°N, 16.65°EGrünsandstein — 48.93°N, 11.83°EForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EBissekty — 40.70°N, 72.60°EHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WMarizal — 10.51°S, 39.01°WMarizal — 10.60°S, 38.39°WTlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WPaluxy — 33.12°N, 97.57°WPaluxy — 31.70°N, 98.51°WGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.65°N, 11.31°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.85°N, 11.86°ELa Colonia — 42.96°S, 67.54°W

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The named rock units Aspidorhynchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aspidorhynchidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,567 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 157 sites for Aspidorhynchidae, 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

85 references

Each of the 172 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. 73 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 Aspidorhynchidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aspidorhynchidae 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 itAspidorhynchiformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bleeker 1859