Hoplopteryx

Hoplopteryx is an extinct genus of slimehead from the Late Cretaceous, lasting from the middle of the Cretaceous to the end. It is one of the best-known fossil trachichthyiforms, and was widespread across the Northern Hemisphere, from throughout Europe east to the Middle East and west to North America.

Hoplopteryx

Ghedoghedo · 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
HoplopterygiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Beryciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Beryciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Beryciformes

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 33 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 33 of 33 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 33 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–88 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93.9 Mya72.2 Mya101.2 Mya65.3 Mya

33 occurrences of Hoplopteryx on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

33 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

14 formations

Zig Zag Chalk — 51.33°N, 0.49°EZig Zag Chalk — 51.24°N, 0.34°WZig Zag Chalk — 50.90°N, 0.15°WZig Zag Chalk — 50.87°N, 0.00°EHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°EMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.95°N, 88.08°WScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°ELower Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.18°ELower Chalk — 51.12°N, 1.31°EAhlen — 51.83°N, 7.83°EGober Chalk — 33.56°N, 95.72°WPovir — 45.82°N, 13.75°ENew Pit — 51.37°N, 0.45°EBaumberge — 51.96°N, 7.36°ECarlile Shale — 44.65°N, 103.54°WBilá Hora — 50.08°N, 14.32°ENavesink — 40.39°N, 74.19°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°W

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The named rock units Hoplopteryx has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hoplopteryx and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Hoplopteryx and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Hoplopteryx, 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

14 references

Each of the 33 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. 2 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 Hoplopteryx

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

No 3D scan of Hoplopteryx 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 itHoplopterygiidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1839