Chauliodus sloani
The Sloane's viperfish, is a predatory mesopelagic dragonfish found in waters across the world. The species was first described by German scientists Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider in their 1801 book Systema ichthyologiae: iconibus CX illustratum, volume 1. Female C. sloani reach maturity between 133 and 191 mm, while males likely reach maturity at slightly smaller body lengths. It has two rows of photophores along its ventral side. It is believed that C. sloani can adjust the intensity of bioluminescence of the ventral photophores to camouflage itself from predators that might see its shadow from below.

Edd48 · 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
- ChauliodusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Stomiiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Stomiiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Stomiiformes
Time the record covers
At most 2.5 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 129 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Chauliodus sloani on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
2 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Chauliodus sloani and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Chauliodus sloani and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
47 taxa- Bellotia apoda2 sites
- Benthosema glaciale2 sites
- Ceratoscopelus maderensis2 sites
- Diaphus holti2 sites
- Diaphus taaningi2 sites
- Gadiculus argenteus2 sites
- Hygophum benoiti2 sites
- Lampanyctus crocodilus2 sites
- Lobianchia dofleini2 sites
- Maurolicus muelleri2 sites
- Myctophum punctatum2 sites
- Notoscopelus elongatus2 sites
- Scopelopsis pliocenicus2 sites
- Symbolophorus veranyi2 sites
- Alepocephalus1 site
- Bathylagus euryops1 site
- Bathypterois1 site
- Bregmaceros1 site
- Ceratoscopelus1 site
- Coelorinchus coelorhincus1 site
- Coelorinchus stellaris1 site
- Coryphaenoides guentheri1 site
- Coryphaenoides rupestris1 site
- Deltentosteus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Chauliodus sloani, 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
2 references- Paleobathymetric interpretation of the fish otoliths from the lower - middle quaternary deposits of Kephallonia and Zakynthos islands (Ionian Sea, Western Greece)1
- Pleistocene fish otoliths from the Mediterranean Basin: a synthesis1
Each of the 2 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 Chauliodus sloani
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Edd48
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Chauliodus sloani 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 itChauliodus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bloch and Schneider 1901