Aulopiformes

Aulopiformes is a diverse order of marine ray-finned fish consisting of some 15 extant and several prehistoric families with about 45 genera and over 230 species. The common names grinners, lizardfishes and allies, or aulopiforms are sometimes used for this group. They are included in the superorder Cyclosquamata, though modern taxonomists consider this superorder to be unwarranted.

Aulopiformes

Richard Ling · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
CyclosquamataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 161 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 748 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 748 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 12 of 748 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 525 of 748 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 13 of 748 occurrencesEocene — about 59 of 748 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 20 of 748 occurrencesMiocene — about 98 of 748 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 748 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 748 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences163–157 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences124–118 Mya — about 3 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 2 occurrences107–101 Mya — about 4 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 110 occurrences96–90 Mya — about 100 occurrences90–84 Mya — about 53 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 64 occurrences79–73 Mya — about 55 occurrences73–67 Mya — about 112 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 36 occurrences62–56 Mya — about 9 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–45 Mya — about 15 occurrences45–39 Mya — about 19 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 16 occurrences34–28 Mya — about 6 occurrences28–22 Mya — about 16 occurrences22–17 Mya — about 30 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 26 occurrences11–5.6 Mya — about 35 occurrences5.6–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences161.5 Mya129 ka169 Mya0 Mya

748 occurrences of Aulopiformes 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

748 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

174 formations

Greenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.34°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WGreenhorn Limestone — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.87°N, 98.51°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.94°N, 98.80°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.92°N, 98.90°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.38°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.26°N, 100.55°WFox Hills — 46.28°N, 100.52°WFox Hills — 46.11°N, 103.90°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.42°WFox Hills — 46.30°N, 100.33°WFox Hills — 46.42°N, 100.74°WFox Hills — 46.41°N, 100.86°WFox Hills — 44.52°N, 102.39°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 101.13°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 43.41°N, 103.31°WNiobrara — 39.06°N, 99.23°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WAhlen — 51.83°N, 7.83°EAhlen — 51.86°N, 7.74°EAhlen — 51.80°N, 7.75°ECarlile Shale — 39.89°N, 98.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.08°N, 99.24°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 38.72°N, 99.32°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WSannine — 34.06°N, 35.69°EMount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.21°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°EMount Harris — 45.13°S, 170.96°EMount Harris — 44.41°S, 171.06°EMount Harris — 44.49°S, 171.01°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°EMount Harris — 44.79°S, 171.03°EMooreville Chalk — 32.94°N, 88.06°WMooreville Chalk — 32.95°N, 88.08°WMooreville Chalk — 31.91°N, 87.87°WMooreville Chalk — 32.44°N, 87.24°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WWaihao Greensand — 44.80°S, 170.98°EWaihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.87°N, 0.00°EZig Zag Chalk — 51.33°N, 0.49°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.86°N, 0.07°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.90°N, 0.15°WZig Zag Chalk — 51.24°N, 0.27°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WMiretrain Marl — 43.56°N, 1.11°WCintalapa — 16.57°N, 93.27°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.36°WPierre Shale — 38.90°N, 101.13°WPierre Shale — 43.22°N, 103.45°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°WPierre Shale — 43.31°N, 104.22°WPierre Shale — 39.01°N, 101.37°WNavesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.38°N, 74.21°WBet Meir or Amminadav — 31.95°N, 35.26°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 51.23°N, 45.10°EGraneros Shale — 40.01°N, 97.17°WGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.68°EMaastricht — 50.84°N, 5.79°ESeaford — 51.49°N, 0.32°ESeaford — 51.40°N, 0.01°ESeaford — 51.49°N, 0.03°ESeaford — 51.13°N, 1.34°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EMishash — 30.67°N, 35.08°EMishash — 30.62°N, 35.12°E

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The named rock units Aulopiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 150 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 273 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aulopiformes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

3,580 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 479 sites for Aulopiformes, and this reads 240 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

294 references

Each of the 748 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. 282 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 Aulopiformes

Credit
Richard Ling
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aulopiformes 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 itCyclosquamata through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rosen 1973