Cheiracanthus

Cheiracanthus is an extinct genus of a group of fish called Acanthodii. It was a deep-bodied acanthodian about 12 in. (30 cm) in length. It had a blunt head, upturned tail, and fins protected by spines. Unlike many other acanthodians, it had one, solitary dorsal fin. Cheiracanthus swam at mid-depth in lakes and rivers, seizing small prey in its gaping jaws. Whole fossils of this fish occur only in Mid-Devonian rocks in Scotland, but its distinctive small, ornamented scales crop up around the world, as far south as Antarctica.

Cheiracanthus

Ghedoghedo · 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
CheiracanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acanthodii
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Acanthodii
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acanthodii

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 365.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 410.62 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Devonian — about 54 of 54 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 54 occurrences412–410 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences410–408 Mya — about 1 occurrence408–406 Mya — about 1 occurrence406–404 Mya — about 1 occurrence404–403 Mya — about 1 occurrence403–401 Mya — about 1 occurrence401–399 Mya — about 2 occurrences399–397 Mya — about 5 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 5 occurrences396–394 Mya — about 5 occurrences394–392 Mya — about 5 occurrences392–390 Mya — about 5 occurrences390–388 Mya — about 5 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 6 occurrences387–385 Mya — about 4 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 3 occurrences383–381 Mya — about 1 occurrence367–365 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences365–363 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences363–361 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences361–360 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences360–358 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences393.47 Mya365.2 Mya412 Mya358 Mya

54 occurrences of Cheiracanthus 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

54 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

10 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 57.54°N, 3.76°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLepel — 53.16°N, 30.80°ELepel — 53.32°N, 30.37°ELepel — 55.41°N, 27.19°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°EKovanshchina — 54.13°N, 36.56°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°ERēzekne — 56.51°N, 27.33°EUpper Stromness Flagstones — 59.08°N, 3.32°WMelby — 60.29°N, 1.70°WHam-Scarfskerry Flagstone — 58.62°N, 3.59°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cheiracanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cheiracanthus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cheiracanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Cheiracanthus, 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

12 references

Each of the 54 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 Cheiracanthus

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

No 3D scan of Cheiracanthus 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 itCheiracanthidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1835