Citharus

Citharus linguatula, the spotted flounder or Atlantic spotted flounder, is a species of fish in the Citharidae, a family of flounders. It is native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, where it is found to a depth of 300 m (980 ft). This species grows to a total length of 30 cm (12 in). It is of minor importance to local commercial fisheries. This species is the only known member of its monotypic genus.

Citharus

Bloch, Marcus Elieser · 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
CitharidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Eocene — about 7 of 24 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 24 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 24 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 24 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 24 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–9.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.6–8.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.0–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.8–3.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences41.03 Mya3.6 Mya49 Mya1.7 Mya

24 occurrences of Citharus 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

24 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

8 formations

Hrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°ECook Mountain — 30.61°N, 96.57°WCook Mountain — 31.33°N, 95.52°WEger — 47.90°N, 20.40°EKiscell Clay — 47.85°N, 20.48°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°ESant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°EMiretrain Marl — 43.56°N, 1.11°W“upper” Lisbon — 31.82°N, 88.24°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Citharus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Citharus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Citharus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

504 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Citharus, 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 24 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 Citharus

Credit
Bloch, Marcus Elieser
Licence
Public Domain
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
Citharus linguatula · UF:Fish:88607

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

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 itCitharidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Reinhardt 1838