Glyptocephalus zachirus

The rex sole is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. Locally, it may also be known as a witch or threadfin sole. It is a demersal fish that lives in temperate waters on sand or mud bottoms at depths of up to 900 metres (3,000 ft), though it is most commonly found between 61 and 500 metres. Its native habitat is the northern Pacific, from Baja California in Mexico up the coasts of the United States, British Columbia and Alaska, across the Bering Sea to the coast of Russia and the Sea of Japan. It is slow-growing, reaching up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length, and it can weigh up to 2.0 kilograms (4.4 lb). Maximum reported lifespan is 24 years.

Glyptocephalus zachirus

NOAA · 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
Also called
rex solePBDB
Sits inside
GlyptocephalusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes

Time the record covers

At least 1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 129 ka.

Pliocene — about 1 of 7 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence137 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8 Mya774 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Glyptocephalus zachirus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

7 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

Port Orford — 42.81°N, 124.53°WPort Orford — 42.83°N, 124.56°WElk River — 42.81°N, 124.81°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WNiguel — 33.64°N, 117.89°W

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The named rock units Glyptocephalus zachirus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glyptocephalus zachirus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glyptocephalus zachirus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

203 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Glyptocephalus zachirus, 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

5 references

Each of the 7 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 Glyptocephalus zachirus

Credit
NOAA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itGlyptocephalus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lockington 1879