Gasterosteus aculeatus

The three-spined stickleback is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its range, ideal for questions about evolution and population genetics. Many populations are anadromous and very tolerant of changes in salinity, a subject of interest to physiologists. It displays elaborate breeding behavior and it can be social making it a popular subject of inquiry in fish ethology and behavioral ecology. Its antipredator adaptations, host-parasite interactions, sensory physiology, reproductive physiology, and endocrinology have also been much studied. Facilitating these studies is the fact that the three-spined stickleback is easy to find in nature and easy to keep in aquaria.

Gasterosteus aculeatus

Lorenz Seebauer · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Also called
three-spined sticklebackPBDB
Sits inside
GasterosteusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Perciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Perciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Perciformes

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 8 of 11 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 11 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Gasterosteus aculeatus 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

11 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

5 formations

"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WMonterey — 34.58°N, 120.34°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WRidge — 34.61°N, 118.72°WMontezuma — 37.99°N, 121.71°W

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The named rock units Gasterosteus aculeatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gasterosteus aculeatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Gasterosteus aculeatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

429 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Gasterosteus aculeatus, 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

8 references

Each of the 11 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 content1

Picture of Gasterosteus aculeatus

Credit
Lorenz Seebauer
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gasterosteus aculeatus 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 itGasterosteus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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