Diaphus problematicus
Diaphus problematicus, the problematic lanternfish, is a species of lanternfish found worldwide.
Dra. M. Pilar Olivar · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- DiaphusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Time the record covers
At least 13 million years on record.
The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 1.8 Mya.
9 occurrences of Diaphus problematicus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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
9 occurrences- Miocene11%
- Pliocene73%
- Pleistocene16%
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
7 formations
- Nobori Formation3
- Cantaure Formation1
- Escudo de Veraguas Formation1
- Bowden Formation1
- Mao Formation1
- Shinzato Formation1
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The named rock units Diaphus problematicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Diaphus problematicus and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Diaphus problematicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
164 taxa- Notoscopelus kuboensis4 sites
- Ceratoscopelus townsendi3 sites
- Diaphus aequalis3 sites
- Diaphus chrysorhynchus3 sites
- Diaphus perspicillatus3 sites
- Lobianchia gemellari3 sites
- Myctophum evermanni3 sites
- Apogon2 sites
- Ariosoma balearica2 sites
- Bregmaceros2 sites
- Citharichthys2 sites
- Diaphus (Lamprossa) lucidus2 sites
- Diaphus dumerilii2 sites
- Diaphus mollis2 sites
- Diaphus nafpaktitisi2 sites
- Haemulon2 sites
- Hygophum proximum2 sites
- Lampanyctus nobilis2 sites
- Myctophum2 sites
- Plotosus2 sites
- Pristipomoides2 sites
- Pythonichthys2 sites
- "Dinematichthyinorum" smithvanizi1 site
- "Dinematichthyinorum" sp.1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Diaphus problematicus, 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
3 references- Lanternfish otoliths (Teleostei, Myctophidae) from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Japan5
- Otoliths of the Myctophidae from the Neogene of tropical America3
- Giant-toothed White Sharks and Wide-toothed Mako (Lamnidae) from the Venezuela Neogene: Their Role in the Caribbean, Shallow-water Fish Assemblage1
Each of the 9 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Diaphus problematicus
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Dra. M. Pilar Olivar
- Licence
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
No 3D scan of Diaphus problematicus 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 itDiaphus through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Parr 1928