Cheirolepis

Cheirolepis is an extinct genus of marine and freshwater ray-finned fish that lived in the Devonian period of Europe and North America. It is the only genus yet known within the family Cheirolepididae and the order Cheirolepidiformes. It was among the most basal of the Devonian actinopterygians and is considered the first to possess the "standard" dermal cranial bones seen in later actinopterygians.

Cheirolepis

Smokeybjb · 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
ActinopterygiiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 231 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 161.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 410.62 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Devonian — about 40 of 62 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 62 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 62 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 4 of 62 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 10 of 62 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 62 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 3 of 62 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 62 occurrences416–407 Mya — about 1 occurrence407–397 Mya — about 4 occurrences397–388 Mya — about 20 occurrences388–379 Mya — about 14 occurrences379–370 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences240–230 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences230–221 Mya — about 1 occurrence221–212 Mya — about 1 occurrence212–203 Mya — about 1 occurrence203–193 Mya — about 6 occurrences193–184 Mya — about 3 occurrences184–175 Mya — about 2 occurrences175–166 Mya — about 4 occurrences166–156 Mya — about 2 occurrences156–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–138 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences393.47 Mya161.5 Mya416 Mya138 Mya

62 occurrences of Cheirolepis 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

62 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

27 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.54°N, 3.76°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 4.03°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°ENarva — 57.55°N, 25.29°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°EPolotsk — 51.88°N, 26.85°EPolotsk — 52.88°N, 26.86°EHuayacocotla — 21.20°N, 98.30°WTumaingela — 32.00°N, 94.00°EBagong — 31.10°N, 97.20°EShoptykol' Suite — 51.10°N, 75.60°EUpper Katynadyr Suite — 51.20°N, 58.60°EBukukun Suite — 49.40°N, 111.10°EKurnub — 29.10°N, 33.60°ESaltwick — 54.37°N, 1.25°WZbaszynek Beds/Wielichowo Beds — 50.68°N, 18.65°EEscuminac — 48.11°N, 66.40°WDenay Limestone — 40.05°N, 116.04°WTordalen — 78.67°N, 16.22°EGauja — 58.01°N, 25.38°EPärnu — 58.39°N, 24.50°EAruküla — 57.55°N, 25.28°EAdrov — 54.47°N, 30.39°EGorodok — 55.46°N, 29.98°ELan' — 52.16°N, 27.30°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cheirolepis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cheirolepis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cheirolepis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

533 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Cheirolepis, 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

28 references

Each of the 62 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. 16 further references are not listed. 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 content3

Picture of Cheirolepis

Credit
Smokeybjb
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
Cheirolepis jonesi · pmo:235.121

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itActinopterygii through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

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