Carapus acus

Carapus acus is a species of bony fish in the family Carapidae, the pearlfishes, and is native to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It lives as a commensal in association with a sea cucumber, spending the day inside its host and emerging at night to feed.

Carapus acus

Etrusko25 · 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
CarapusPBDB
Diet
carnivore, parasitePBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Ophidiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ophidiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.8 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.82 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 7 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.6–8.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.1–7.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.6–7.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.3–3.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.4–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–955 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences955 ka–477 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences477 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12.8 Mya1.8 Mya14.3 Mya0 Mya

14 occurrences of Carapus acus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

14 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

2 formations

Hrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°E

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The named rock units Carapus acus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Carapus acus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Carapus acus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

428 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Carapus acus, 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

7 references

Each of the 14 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 content2

Picture of Carapus acus

Credit
Etrusko25
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Carapus acus · UF:Fish:221561

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 itCarapus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brünnich 1768)