Orthacanthus

Searched as Diplodus sp.. The Paleobiology Database treats Orthacanthus as the accepted name.

Diplodus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging the family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies. These fishes are found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the western Indian Ocean.

Orthacanthus

Roberto Pillon · CC BY 3.0 · 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
OrthacanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 393 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 410.62 Mya to 0 Mya.

Devonian — about 1 of 66 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 12 of 66 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 66 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 66 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 66 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 66 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 66 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 66 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 66 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 66 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 66 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 66 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 66 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 66 occurrencesMiocene — about 41 of 66 occurrencesPliocene — about 3 of 66 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 66 occurrences419–405 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences405–391 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences335–321 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences321–307 Mya — about 10 occurrences307–293 Mya — about 2 occurrences237–223 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences223–209 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences209–195 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–14 Mya — about 17 occurrences14–0 Mya — about 33 occurrences393.47 Mya11.7 ka419 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Orthacanthus 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

66 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

19 formations

Lagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.28°WLagos-Portimão — 37.12°N, 8.54°WLagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.67°WHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°ERaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WCalcarenites of Sant Elm — 39.92°N, 3.06°EGrund — 48.63°N, 16.06°EBolognano — 42.24°N, 14.04°EUscari — 9.57°N, 82.57°WRío Banano — 9.92°N, 83.55°WCampbellton — 48.00°N, 66.70°WLindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EAshley — 32.95°N, 80.18°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.09°N, 3.07°WCatahoula — 31.66°N, 88.66°WSant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°EArgille Azzurre — 44.26°N, 11.66°ESzurdokpüspöki — 47.93°N, 19.76°EGliwice — 50.31°N, 18.61°EPińczów — 50.43°N, 20.80°EGârbova — 46.29°N, 23.62°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Orthacanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Orthacanthus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Orthacanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

296 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Orthacanthus, 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

41 references

Each of the 66 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. 29 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 content3

Picture of Orthacanthus

Credit
Roberto Pillon
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Diplodus annularis · UWFC:ADULT COLLECTION:UW 016854

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itOrthacanthidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1843