Diaphus splendidus

Diaphus splendidus, the horned lanternfish, is a species of lanternfish found worldwide.

Diaphus splendidus

NOAA's Fisheries Collection; SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC · 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
horned lanternfishPBDB
Sits inside
DiaphusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes

Time the record covers

At least 46 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 774 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 41 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesMiocene — about 25 of 41 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 41 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 41 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 6 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences48.07 Mya1.8 Mya57 Mya0 Mya

41 occurrences of Diaphus splendidus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

41 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

9 formations

Navidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°WNavidad — 33.94°S, 71.85°WEscudo de Veraguas — 9.09°N, 81.55°WEscudo de Veraguas — 9.10°N, 81.57°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°ECayo Agua — 9.15°N, 82.02°WHijikata — 34.65°N, 138.04°ERanquil — 37.20°S, 73.49°WSant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°EArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°ECubagua — 10.57°N, 64.24°W

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The named rock units Diaphus splendidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diaphus splendidus and its relatives

Miocene

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

Found in the same rock

591 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Diaphus splendidus, 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

19 references

Each of the 41 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. 7 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 Diaphus splendidus

Credit
NOAA's Fisheries Collection; SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Diaphus splendidus 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. (Prochazka 1893)