Heterolepidotus

Heterolepidotus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine halecomorph ray-finned fish from the Early Jurassic of Europe. It is alternately considered a member of the Ionoscopiformes or Ophiopsiformes.

Heterolepidotus

Egerton, P.; Huxley, T.H.; Gunther, A · 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
FuridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 192.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 243.43 Mya to 184.2 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 3 of 22 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 9 of 22 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 10 of 22 occurrencesEarly Jurassic245–243 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences243–241 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences241–238 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 1 occurrence216–214 Mya — about 3 occurrences214–212 Mya — about 4 occurrences212–210 Mya — about 1 occurrence208–206 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–201 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences201–199 Mya — about 4 occurrences199–197 Mya — about 2 occurrences197–195 Mya — about 2 occurrences195–193 Mya — about 2 occurrences193–191 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences191–189 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences189–187 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences187–185 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences185–183 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences241.464 Mya192.9 Mya245 Mya183 Mya

22 occurrences of Heterolepidotus on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

22 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

Seefelder — 47.32°N, 11.22°EPerledo-Varenna — 46.02°N, 9.30°EDolomia Principale — 40.72°N, 14.95°EBesano — 45.89°N, 8.90°EBelemnite Marls — 50.72°N, 2.85°W

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The named rock units Heterolepidotus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heterolepidotus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Heterolepidotus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

157 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Heterolepidotus, 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

Each of the 22 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 content2

Picture of Heterolepidotus

Credit
Egerton, P.; Huxley, T.H.; Gunther, A
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Philothamnus heterolepidotus · UMMZ:Herps:181265

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 itFuridae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Egerton 1872