Clupea pallasii

The Pacific herring is a species of the herring family associated with the Pacific Ocean environment of North America and northeast Asia. It is a silvery fish with unspined fins and a deeply forked caudal fin. The distribution is widely along the California coast from Baja California north to Alaska and the Bering Sea; in Asia, the distribution is south to Japan, Korea, and China. Clupea pallasii is considered a keystone species because of its very high productivity and interactions with many predators and prey. Pacific herring spawn in variable seasons, but often in the early part of the year in intertidal and sub-tidal environments, commonly on eelgrass, seaweed or other submerged vegetation. They do not die after spawning and can breed in successive years. According to government sources, the Pacific herring fishery collapsed in the year 1993 and is slowly recovering to commercial viability in several North American stock areas. The species is named for Peter Simon Pallas, a noted German naturalist and explorer.

Clupea pallasii

Anonymous Unknown author · 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
Pacific herringPBDB
Sits inside
ClupeaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Clupeiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Clupeiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Clupeiformes

Time the record covers

At least 117 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 774 ka to 0 Mya.

Pleistocene — about 4 of 5 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 5 occurrences807 ka–764 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences764 ka–722 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences722 ka–679 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences679 ka–637 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences637 ka–595 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences595 ka–552 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences552 ka–510 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences510 ka–467 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences467 ka–425 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences425 ka–382 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences382 ka–340 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences340 ka–297 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences297 ka–255 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255 ka–212 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212 ka–170 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences170 ka–127 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences127 ka–85 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85 ka–42 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence129 ka – 11.7 ka1.27 Mya0 Mya

5 occurrences of Clupea pallasii 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

5 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

3 formations

Miyata — 35.19°N, 39.65°ESan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Clupea pallasii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Clupea pallasii and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Clupea pallasii and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

219 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Clupea pallasii, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Clupea pallasii

Credit
Anonymous Unknown author
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
Clupea pallasii pallasii pallasii · UWFC:ADULT COLLECTION:UW 004669

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itClupea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Valenciennes 1847