Atractosteus

Atractosteus is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae, with three extant species. It is one of two surviving gar genera alongside Lepisosteus.

Atractosteus

Greg Hume · 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
LepisosteidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 41 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 22 of 41 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 41 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 7 of 41 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 41 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 41 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 41 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–101 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–87 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–76 Mya — about 2 occurrences76–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–69 Mya — about 8 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 6 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–7.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.2–3.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.6–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka108 Mya0 Mya

41 occurrences of Atractosteus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

41 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

25 formations

Hell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WConques — 42.15°N, 1.00°EConques — 42.09°N, 0.69°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WLos Alamitos — 41.95°S, 66.33°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WDensuș-Ciula — 45.62°N, 22.78°EEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WSantiago — 33.40°N, 117.51°WMarnes de Lestaillats — 43.15°N, 1.04°EEureka Sound — 74.17°N, 120.75°WBridger — 41.85°N, 109.78°WFiguerola — 41.12°N, 1.01°EAdamantina — 20.92°S, 50.45°WArkadelphia — 34.38°N, 92.85°WTremp — 41.12°N, 1.01°EWilliams Fork — 39.93°N, 108.82°W

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

Atractosteus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,075 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Atractosteus, 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

31 references

Each of the 41 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. 19 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 content2

Picture of Atractosteus

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Atractosteus spatula · TCWC:Ichthyology:19727.01

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 itLepisosteidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1820