Gonostomatidae

The Gonostomatidae are a family of mesopelagic marine fish, commonly named bristlemouths or anglemouths. Their common name, bristlemouth, comes from their odd, equally sized, and bristle-like teeth. It is a relatively small family, containing only eight known genera and 32 species. However, bristlemouths make up for their lack of diversity with relative abundance, numbering in the hundreds of trillions to quadrillions. The genus Cyclothone is thought to be one of the most abundant vertebrate genera in the world.

Gonostomatidae

Uncredited · 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
StomiiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Stomiiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Stomiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Stomiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 129 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 61 occurrencesEocene — about 8 of 61 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 61 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 32 of 61 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 61 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 61 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences48.07 Mya774 ka57 Mya0 Mya

61 occurrences of Gonostomatidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

61 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

15 formations

Chiusole — 45.54°N, 10.85°EChiusole — 46.08°N, 11.12°EMakrilia — 35.04°N, 25.76°EMenilite — 49.49°N, 17.79°EMenilite — 49.20°N, 17.20°EMenilite — 49.42°N, 17.75°EModelo — 34.13°N, 118.42°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WMonterey — 34.11°N, 118.43°WWaioha Shellbeds — 34.50°S, 172.96°ECapistrano — 33.47°N, 117.68°WRaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WKurasi — 47.87°N, 142.10°ELindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°EKliwa Sandstone — 47.54°N, 25.89°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°EPakaurangi — 36.24°S, 174.28°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°EGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°E

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The named rock units Gonostomatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gonostomatidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Gonostomatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

879 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Gonostomatidae, 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

33 references

Each of the 61 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. 21 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 Gonostomatidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gonostomatidae 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 itStomiiformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.