Cathorops
Cathorops is a genus of catfishes in the family Ariidae found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These species are found in the eastern and western Central and South America in brackish and freshwater habitats. This genus is a strongly supported clade of this family. It consists of a natural group in which the monophyly is well-defined by morphological and molecular evidence and the genus probably includes several unrecognized species from both American coasts.

D Ross Robertson · 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
- AriidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Siluriformes
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Siluriformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Siluriformes
- Environment
- marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Ariidae
Time the record covers
At least 4.3 million years on record.
The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 7.246 Mya.
3 occurrences of Cathorops on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
3 occurrences- Miocene100%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Cathorops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Cathorops and its relatives
MioceneWhere Cathorops and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
101 taxa- Dasyatis2 sites
- Galeocerdo aduncus2 sites
- Haemulon2 sites
- Hemipristis serra2 sites
- Larimus2 sites
- Nebrius delfortriei2 sites
- Otodus megalodon2 sites
- Pomadasys2 sites
- Acipenser1 site
- Aetobatus arcuatus1 site
- Albula sp.1 site
- Aplodinotus hoffmani1 site
- Aplodinotus longecaudatus1 site
- Apogon1 site
- Ariosoma balearica1 site
- Arius1 site
- Bagre1 site
- Bairdiella1 site
- Bothidae1 site
- Bregmaceros1 site
- Cantarius nolfi1 site
- Carcharhinus1 site
- Carcharhinus ackermannii1 site
- Carcharodon carcharias1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Cathorops, 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- Fossil sea catfish (Siluriformes; Ariidae) otoliths and in-skull otoliths from the Neogene of the Western Central Atlantic1
- Giant-toothed White Sharks and Wide-toothed Mako (Lamnidae) from the Venezuela Neogene: Their Role in the Caribbean, Shallow-water Fish Assemblage1
- A marine ichthyofauna from the Miocene of Panama, and the Tertiary Caribbean faunal province1
Each of the 3 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 Cathorops
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- D Ross Robertson
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it

CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Cathorops hypophthalmus · UF:Fish:97189
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Cathorops”
- 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 itAriidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jordan and Gilbert 1883