Ectosteorhachis nitidus

Ectosteorhachis is an extinct genus of freshwater megalichthyid tetrapodomorphs that inhabited what is now North America during the Permian period. It is the only known member of the subfamily Ectosteorhachinae. Fossil remains are known from the United States.

Ectosteorhachis nitidus

Machiel Mulder · FAL · 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
EctosteorhachisPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 6.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 290.1 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 298.9 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPermian — about 3 of 3 occurrencesPermian299–299 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences297–296 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences296–295 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences295–294 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences294–293 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences293–293 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences292–291 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences291–290 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences283–282 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences282–282 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences282–281 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences279–278 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences277–276 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences276–276 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290.1 Mya283.3 Mya299.4 Mya273.9 Mya

3 occurrences of Ectosteorhachis nitidus on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

3 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

Cutler — 37.17°N, 109.85°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°W

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The named rock units Ectosteorhachis nitidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Ectosteorhachis nitidus and its relatives

Permian

Where Ectosteorhachis nitidus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Ectosteorhachis nitidus, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 Ectosteorhachis nitidus

Credit
Machiel Mulder
Licence
FAL
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ectosteorhachis nitidus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itEctosteorhachis through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cope 1880)