Esox

Esox is a genus of freshwater fish commonly known as pike or pickerel. It is the type genus of the family Esocidae. The type species of the genus is Esox lucius, the northern pike.

Esox

Uncredited · 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
pikePBDB
Sits inside
EsocidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Esocidae

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 55 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 9 of 55 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 55 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 55 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 55 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 55 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 55 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 6 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–54 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 28 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

55 occurrences of Esox on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

55 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

16 formations

Fort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 47.58°N, 107.05°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.42°N, 1.72°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.91°N, 1.36°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°EMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WKuyal'nikian — 49.70°N, 28.42°EPaskapoo — 54.33°N, 118.75°WGreen River — 41.87°N, 110.68°WLaa — 48.42°N, 16.38°EAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°EChersonian — 47.25°N, 28.69°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°EBaumberge — 51.96°N, 7.36°ERavenscrag — 49.60°N, 108.70°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°W

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The named rock units Esox has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Esox and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Esox and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,209 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Esox, 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

40 references

Each of the 55 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. 28 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 content2

Picture of Esox

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Esox americanus · TCWC:Ichthyology:15238.03

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 itEsocidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758