Dercetidae

Dercetidae is an extinct family of marine enchodontoid ray-finned fish that lived from the late Cretaceous to potentially the lower Eocene, being found worldwide. All members of the family are generally long-bodied with long jaws. Most dercetids were small fish though one of the generally agreed upon members, Dercetis magnificus, had a standard length of 1 metre (3.3 ft). Similar to other enchodontiods, the taxonomic history of the family is long and complicated with previous authors suggesting close placements to fish like deep-sea spiny eels and salmon. More recently, however, arguments have been made against Dercetidae being a monophyletic clade. Even with this being the case, papers referencing the group generally lean to the family being a true taxonomic grouping.

Dercetidae

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
IchthyotringoideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Aulopiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Aulopiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Aulopiformes

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 99 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 94 of 99 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 99 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 99 occurrencesEocene123–120 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences120–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 2 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 8 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 8 occurrences95–92 Mya — about 8 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 9 occurrences90–87 Mya — about 3 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 8 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 9 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 4 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 5 occurrences72–69 Mya — about 9 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 9 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 4 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences62–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119.57 Mya56 Mya123 Mya47 Mya

99 occurrences of Dercetidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

99 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

36 formations

Ahlen — 51.83°N, 7.83°EAhlen — 51.86°N, 7.74°EAgua Nueva — 20.13°N, 97.63°WAgua Nueva — 26.66°N, 100.04°WAgua Nueva — 26.75°N, 100.05°WSeaford — 51.49°N, 0.32°ESeaford — 51.40°N, 0.01°ESeaford — 51.49°N, 0.03°ESeaford — 51.13°N, 1.34°EDukamaje — 15.37°N, 5.83°EDukamaje — 15.41°N, 5.73°EDukamaje — 15.47°N, 6.26°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WBearpaw — 49.57°N, 112.85°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMishash — 30.67°N, 35.08°EMishash — 30.62°N, 35.12°EBet Meir or Amminadav — 31.95°N, 35.26°ECalcari di Monte San Michele — 45.93°N, 13.62°EAkrabou — 30.51°N, 4.84°WSannine — 34.06°N, 35.69°EMuwaddar Chalk Marl — 31.56°N, 36.51°ENiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WGulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EGulpen — 50.75°N, 5.67°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.87°N, 0.00°EZig Zag Chalk — 50.86°N, 0.07°EPierre Shale — 43.31°N, 104.22°WPhosphorite Unit — 32.02°N, 36.03°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.68°EKaskapau — 55.71°N, 117.60°WSan Rafael — 5.50°N, 73.57°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dercetidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dercetidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Dercetidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

916 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Dercetidae, 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

56 references

Each of the 99 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. 44 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 Dercetidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itIchthyotringoidei through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope