Diaphus rafinesquii

The white-spotted lantern fish, also called Rafinesque's lanternfish, is a species of fish in the family Myctophidae.

Diaphus rafinesquii

Uncredited · 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
Sits inside
DiaphusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes

Time the record covers

At least 6.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 11 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 9 of 22 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–809 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence404 ka–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.246 Mya774 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Diaphus rafinesquii on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

22 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

2 formations

Lindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°ESant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Diaphus rafinesquii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diaphus rafinesquii and its relatives

Miocene

Where Diaphus rafinesquii and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Diaphus rafinesquii, 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

11 references

Each of the 22 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. 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 Diaphus rafinesquii

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Diaphus rafinesquii 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 MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cocco 1838)