Campbellodus decipiens
Campbellodus decipiens is an extinct ptyctodontid placoderm fish that lived around 380 million years ago. Its fossil remains have been found preserved in perfect three-dimensional form from the Gogo Formation of Western Australia. Originally it was described from large tooth plates and isolated skull roof bones by Miles & Young (1977). Long (1995) restored the complete fish based on new material found at Gogo in the mid 1980s, and described by Long (1997).

Apokryltaros · 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
- CampbellodusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Placodermi
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Placodermi
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Placodermi
Time the record covers
At most 3.4 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 382.31 Mya and 379 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Campbellodus decipiens on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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
1 occurrences- Devonian100%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Campbellodus decipiens has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Campbellodus decipiens and its relatives
DevonianWhere Campbellodus decipiens and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.
Found in the same rock
11 taxa- Austroptyctodus gardineri1 site
- Bullerichthys fascidens1 site
- Chirodipterus australis1 site
- Compagopiscis croucheri1 site
- Eastmanosteus calliaspis1 site
- Gogodipterus paddyensis1 site
- Gogonasus andrewsae1 site
- Gogopiscis gracilis1 site
- Holodipterus gogoensis1 site
- Latocamurus coulthardi1 site
- Onychodus jandemarrai1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Campbellodus decipiens, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Campbellodus decipiens
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Apokryltaros
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Campbellodus decipiens 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 itCampbellodus through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miles and Young 1977