Axelrodichthys

Axelrodichthys is an extinct genus of mawsoniid coelacanth from the Cretaceous of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Several species are known, the remains of which were discovered in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Brazil, North Africa, and possibly Mexico, as well as in the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco (Cenomanian), Madagascar and France. The Axelrodichthys of the Lower Cretaceous frequented both brackish and coastal marine waters while the most recent species lived exclusively in fresh waters. The French specimens are the last known fresh water coelacanths. Most of the species of this genus reached 1 metre to 2 metres in length. Axelrodichthys was named in 1986 by John G. Maisey in honor of the American ichthyologist Herbert R. Axelrod.

Axelrodichthys

Daderot · CC0 · 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
MawsoniidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 119.57 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 15 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 11 of 15 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 15 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences113.2 Mya72.2 Mya121 Mya65 Mya

15 occurrences of Axelrodichthys 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

15 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

8 formations

Ankazomihaboka — 16.17°S, 46.70°ETlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WCrato — 7.00°S, 40.00°WGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WMarnes Rouges Inférieures — 42.91°N, 2.20°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.35°N, 2.95°ECodo — 4.35°S, 43.91°WRomualdo — 7.47°S, 39.76°W

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The named rock units Axelrodichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Axelrodichthys and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

130 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Axelrodichthys, 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

9 references

Each of the 15 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. 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 Axelrodichthys

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Axelrodichthys 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 itMawsoniidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Maisey 1986