Benthosema pterotum

Benthosema pterotum, also known as the skinnycheek lanternfish and opaline lanternfish, is a species of fish in the family Myctophidae. It is found in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean. It is dominant species in the mesopelagic of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is a minor fishery species.

Benthosema pterotum

Unknown author Unknown author · 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
BenthosemaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes

Time the record covers

At least 2.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPliocene — about 10 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.3–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.9–2.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6 Mya774 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Benthosema pterotum on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

11 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

5 formations

Gutingkeng — 23.04°N, 120.43°EGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°EShinzato — 26.12°N, 127.74°EShinzato — 26.38°N, 127.86°EShinzato — 26.32°N, 127.96°ENobori — 33.37°N, 134.06°EYonabaru — 26.19°N, 127.75°EChiting — 23.02°N, 120.28°E

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The named rock units Benthosema pterotum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Benthosema pterotum and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Benthosema pterotum and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

87 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Benthosema pterotum, 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

3 references

Each of the 11 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 Benthosema pterotum

Credit
Unknown author Unknown author
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Benthosema pterotum 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 itBenthosema through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Alcock 1890)