Dalatiidae

The Dalatiidae are the family of kitefin sharks of the order Squaliformes. Members of this family are small, under 2 m (6.6 ft) long, and are found worldwide. They have cigar-shaped bodies with narrow heads and rounded snouts. Several species have specialized bioluminescent organs. Though eight genera are in this family, three of them are monotypic.

Dalatiidae

P. Clarke · Public Domain · via Wikidata/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
SqualiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Squaliformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Squaliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Squaliformes

Time the record covers

At least 90 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 1.4 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 220 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 220 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 220 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 94 of 220 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 220 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 93 of 220 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 16 of 220 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 220 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence68–65 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 5 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 10 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 20 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 20 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 23 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 20 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 35 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 22 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 15 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences93.9 Mya3 Mya102 Mya0 Mya

220 occurrences of Dalatiidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

220 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

65 formations

Dongen — 52.73°N, 6.30°EDongen — 53.16°N, 6.22°EDongen — 52.12°N, 6.72°EMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WLaksarska Nova Ves — 48.59°N, 17.38°ELa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.66°WMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.62°N, 0.07°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WSenhata — 35.16°N, 139.86°ENorthumberland — 49.55°N, 124.70°WNorthumberland — 49.54°N, 124.71°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WOnzole — 0.63°S, 80.47°WOnzole — 0.60°S, 80.45°WOnzole — 0.97°N, 79.61°WDuho — 36.11°N, 129.40°EJoe's River — 13.22°N, 59.55°WNeuhofen — 48.50°N, 14.28°EChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.04°WKeasey — 45.87°N, 123.12°WSign — 18.48°N, 77.58°WOsinovaya — 48.36°N, 41.85°EOsinovaya — 48.46°N, 41.83°EChagres — 9.27°N, 80.06°WIseyama — 36.42°N, 138.30°EKressenberg — 47.93°N, 12.97°ECubagua — 10.57°N, 64.24°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.21°WFilakovo — 48.31°N, 19.70°E

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The named rock units Dalatiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 61 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dalatiidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Dalatiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,531 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 161 sites for Dalatiidae, 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

74 references

Each of the 220 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. 62 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 content1

Picture of Dalatiidae

Credit
P. Clarke
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dalatiidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itSqualiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1851