Echelus

Echelus is a genus of eels in the snake-eel family Ophichthidae. Fossils belonging to this genus date back to the Early Eocene.

Echelus

Bideault · 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
OphichthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Anguilliformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Anguilliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Anguilliformes

Time the record covers

At least 32 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 13.82 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 6 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesMiocene57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48.07 Mya15.98 Mya56.8 Mya13 Mya

6 occurrences of Echelus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

6 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

Miretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°E

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The named rock units Echelus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Echelus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Echelus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

332 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Echelus, 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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 content2

Picture of Echelus

Credit
Bideault
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Palaeoart
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOphichthidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1810