Elopiformes

The Elopiformes are the order of ray-finned fish including the tarpons, tenpounders, and ladyfish, as well as a number of extinct types. They have a long fossil record, easily distinguished from other fishes by the presence of an additional set of bones in the throat.

Elopiformes

Van Doren, Louis Otis; Clarke, Samuel C.; Kenworthy, Charles James · 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
ElopomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 149 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 8 of 387 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 31 of 387 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 233 of 387 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 10 of 387 occurrencesEocene — about 85 of 387 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 387 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 387 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 387 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 387 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 4 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 4 occurrences145–140 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–129 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–119 Mya — about 6 occurrences119–114 Mya — about 12 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 5 occurrences109–104 Mya — about 3 occurrences104–98 Mya — about 9 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 15 occurrences93–88 Mya — about 9 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 26 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 57 occurrences78–72 Mya — about 57 occurrences72–67 Mya — about 49 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 17 occurrences62–57 Mya — about 4 occurrences57–52 Mya — about 29 occurrences52–47 Mya — about 29 occurrences47–41 Mya — about 16 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 9 occurrences36–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–10 Mya — about 5 occurrences10–5.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.2–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences149.2 Mya11.7 ka155 Mya0 Mya

387 occurrences of Elopiformes on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

387 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

120 formations

Dinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.15°N, 110.40°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.54°N, 0.16°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.68°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WRomualdo — 7.51°S, 39.55°WRomualdo — 7.47°S, 39.76°WRomualdo — 7.43°S, 39.82°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.42°N, 100.74°WFox Hills — 46.26°N, 100.55°WFox Hills — 46.11°N, 103.90°WFox Hills — 44.52°N, 102.39°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WTallahatta — 31.38°N, 86.67°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WAhlen — 51.83°N, 7.83°EAhlen — 51.86°N, 7.74°EAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.46°N, 103.56°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WArgile des Flandres — 50.61°N, 3.84°EArgile des Flandres — 50.62°N, 3.46°EArgile des Flandres — 50.71°N, 3.84°EArgile des Flandres — 50.85°N, 4.37°EHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.05°WHell Creek — 47.09°N, 104.60°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WMarnes de Lestaillats — 43.17°N, 1.01°EMarnes de Lestaillats — 43.15°N, 1.04°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WTlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WConques — 42.09°N, 1.00°EConques — 42.09°N, 0.69°EMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°W

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The named rock units Elopiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 96 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 49 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elopiformes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Elopiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

3,431 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 287 sites for Elopiformes, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

169 references

Each of the 387 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. 157 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 Elopiformes

Credit
Van Doren, Louis Otis; Clarke, Samuel C.; Kenworthy, Charles James
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Elopiformes 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 itElopomorpha through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sauvage 1875