Clarias

Clarias is a genus of catfishes of the family Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes. The name is derived from the Greek chlaros, which means lively, and is about the ability of the fish to live for a long time out of water.

Clarias

"Image by: Pam Fuller, USGS" · 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
Also called
catfishPBDB
Sits inside
ClariidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Siluriformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Siluriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Siluriformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Siluriformes

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 9 of 130 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 17 of 130 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 94 of 130 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.0–6.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.3–5.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.6–4.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 19 occurrences2.1–1.4 Mya — about 30 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 31 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

130 occurrences of Clarias on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

130 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

18 formations

Koobi Fora — 4.26°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 4.29°N, 36.23°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.44°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 4.08°N, 36.35°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EOlduvai — 2.97°S, 35.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EWembere-Manonga — 3.87°S, 33.72°EWembere-Manonga — 3.90°S, 33.82°EWembere-Manonga — 3.92°S, 33.88°EWembere-Manonga — 4.03°S, 33.78°EWembere-Manonga — 3.88°S, 33.97°EWembere-Manonga — 3.98°S, 33.93°EGabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°EOlorgesailie — 1.58°S, 36.43°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°ENgorora — 0.90°N, 35.85°EMuluk — 30.42°N, 30.25°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EKaiso Village — 1.50°N, 31.00°EChiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°ETiim — 0.84°N, 35.82°ENachukui — 4.27°N, 35.82°EBaynunah — 24.00°N, 52.33°EHadar — 11.07°N, 40.77°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Clarias has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Clarias and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Clarias and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

590 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 128 sites for Clarias, 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

46 references

Each of the 130 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. 34 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 content2

Picture of Clarias

Credit
"Image by: Pam Fuller, USGS"
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Clarias batrachus · TCWC:Ichthyology:16152.06

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 itClariidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scopoli 1777