Habroichthys
Habroichthys is an extinct genus of marine peltopleuriform ray-finned fish from the Middle Triassic, and is the only genus of the monotypic family Habroichthyidae. Fossils of the fish have been found in a number of countries being Slovenia, Italy, and China. Species within the genus were small with the largest species having a standard length of only 50 millimetres (2.0 in). Due to their small size, the preservation of the skull bones of the fish are usually poorly preserved, resulting in species being identified by the number of flank scales along with the placement of certain fins on the body. Within their environment, Habroichthys would have been a very common fish and would have contributed a large amount of biomass in their ecosystems. Overall, these fish would have most likely behaved like a number of modern schooling fish that swim near the water's surface. There are currently 12 valid species attributed to the genus.

Conedera, D.; Hitij, T.; Monari, S.; Gatto, R.; Andreetti, M.; Tintori, A. · CC BY 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- Sits inside
- HabroichthyidaePBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Time the record covers
At least 7.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 244.4 Mya to 237 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 233.6 Mya.
28 occurrences of Habroichthys on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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
28 occurrencesThese 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
11 formations
- Besano Formation8
- Strelovec Formation7
- Prosanto Formation3
- Besano Formation2
- Sciliar Formation2
- Reingrabener Schiefer Formation1
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The named rock units Habroichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Habroichthys and its relatives
Middle TriassicWhere Habroichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.
Found in the same rock
145 taxa- Placopleurus5 sites
- Peltopleurus lissocephalus4 sites
- Ptycholepis barboi4 sites
- Saurichthys4 sites
- Aetheodontus besanensis3 sites
- Luganoia lepidosteoides3 sites
- Meridensia meridensis3 sites
- Peltoperleidus macrodontus3 sites
- Peltopleurus3 sites
- Peltopleurus nothocephalus3 sites
- Peripeltopleurus vexillipinnis3 sites
- Pholidopleurus3 sites
- Placopleurus zmelkooworum3 sites
- Archaeosemionotus2 sites
- Bobasatrania2 sites
- Cephaloxenus2 sites
- Cephaloxenus macropterus2 sites
- Ctenognathichthys2 sites
- Ctenognathichthys bellottii2 sites
- Dipteronotus2 sites
- Eosemionotus2 sites
- Gracilignathichthys microlepis2 sites
- Gyrolepis2 sites
- Peltoperleidus bellipinnis2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Habroichthys, 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
9 references- The miniature fish Habroichthys (Actinopterygii; Peltopleuriformes): seven new species from the Middle Triassic of Italy and Slovenia reveal insights on its palaeobiology, palaeobiogeography, and palaeoecology11
- Basal ray-finned fishes (Osteichthyes; Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio (Canton Tessin, Switzerland)8
- Die Prosanto Formation - eine fischreiche Fossil-Lagerstätte in der Mitteltrias der Silvretta-Decke (Kanton Graubünden, Schweiz)3
- A hiatus obscures the early evolution of modern lineages of bony fishes1
- The Pelsonian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) fish assemblage from Monte Prà della Vacca/Kühwiesenkopf (Braies Dolomites, Italy)1
- A new species of Habroichthys Brough, 1939 (Actinopterygii; Peltopleuriformes) from the Pelsonian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Yunnan Province, South China1
- Der Schuppenpanzer von Habroichthys minimus, einem ungewöhnlichen Strahlenflosser (Actinopterygii; Peltopleuriformes) aus der Mittleren Trias der Südalpen1
- The Upper Triassic Fishes from Polzberg bei Lunz, Austria1
- Brough, 19391
Each of the 28 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 Habroichthys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Conedera, D.; Hitij, T.; Monari, S.; Gatto, R.; Andreetti, M.; Tintori, A.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- 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 itHabroichthyidae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brough 1939