Holoptychius

Holoptychius is an extinct genus of marine & freshwater porolepiform lobe-finned fish from the Late Devonian period. It is known from fossils worldwide, from North America, South America, and much of Europe. The genus was first described by Louis Agassiz in 1839.

Holoptychius

Smokeybjb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
HoloptychiidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 358.86 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 323.4 Mya.

Devonian — about 46 of 47 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 1 of 47 occurrencesCarboniferous395–392 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences392–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–388 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences388–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences383–380 Mya — about 5 occurrences380–378 Mya — about 5 occurrences378–375 Mya — about 5 occurrences375–373 Mya — about 5 occurrences373–371 Mya — about 4 occurrences371–368 Mya — about 3 occurrences368–366 Mya — about 4 occurrences366–363 Mya — about 4 occurrences363–361 Mya — about 5 occurrences361–358 Mya — about 4 occurrences358–356 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences356–354 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences354–351 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences351–349 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences349–346 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences346–344 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences344–341 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences341–339 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences339–337 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences337–334 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences334–332 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences332–329 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences329–327 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences327–324 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences324–322 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387.95 Mya358.86 Mya395 Mya322 Mya

47 occurrences of Holoptychius on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

47 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

26 formations

Chemung — 41.68°N, 76.71°WChemung — 41.58°N, 75.78°WCatskill — 41.81°N, 77.78°WParting — 38.50°N, 105.92°WParting — 38.67°N, 106.62°WEvieux — 50.67°N, 5.70°EEvieux — 50.45°N, 5.28°EOld Red Sandstone — 51.50°N, 2.78°WKetleri — 56.70°N, 22.13°EKetleri — 56.59°N, 22.01°EEscuminac — 48.11°N, 66.40°WKovanshchina — 54.13°N, 36.56°ELan' — 52.16°N, 27.30°EHunter Siltstone — 33.75°S, 148.34°EMartin — 35.25°N, 111.61°WLybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WElbert — 37.50°N, 107.63°WTurgenevo — 52.90°N, 36.03°EGlenvale Sandstone — 56.31°N, 2.94°WTērvete — 56.46°N, 23.25°EPickwell Down Sandstone — 51.17°N, 4.21°WFarlow Sandstones — 53.33°N, 2.51°WFram — 77.17°N, 86.27°WKatsberg — 41.86°N, 74.76°WPļaviņas — 59.89°N, 32.80°EAlves Beds — 57.65°N, 3.40°WRosebrae Beds — 57.65°N, 3.39°WBois des Mouches — 50.34°N, 4.87°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Holoptychius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Holoptychius and its relatives

Devonian

Where Holoptychius and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

291 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Holoptychius, 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

31 references

Each of the 47 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. 19 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 content3

Picture of Holoptychius

Credit
Smokeybjb
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Holoptychius giganteus · nms:g:1902.80.34

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
AVZ
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHoloptychiidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Agassiz 1843)