Iniopterygia

Iniopterygiformes is an extinct order of cartilaginous fish known only from the Carboniferous period of the United States. Iniopterygians are characterized by large, superficially wing-like pectoral fins positioned upwards behind the head, from which the name of the group is derived. Iniopterygians are also noted to possess proportionally large skulls and eyes, armor plates composed of dentin, and "tooth-whorls" of fused teeth. Their elongated pectoral fins bore large, denticle-covered spines, and they are thought to have used them to swim using a "flying" motion. The iniopterygians were comparatively small chondrichthyans, with the largest species reaching only 50 cm (20 in) in length.

Iniopterygia

SeismicShrimp · 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
ChondrichthyesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.6 Mya to 303.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 330.3 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 97 of 97 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 97 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences330–329 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences329–328 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences328–327 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences327–325 Mya — about 2 occurrences325–324 Mya — about 2 occurrences324–323 Mya — about 2 occurrences316–315 Mya — about 5 occurrences315–314 Mya — about 10 occurrences314–312 Mya — about 10 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 10 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 10 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 10 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 10 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 10 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 4 occurrences306–305 Mya — about 4 occurrences305–304 Mya — about 4 occurrences304–303 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences300–299 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences323.6 Mya303.7 Mya330.9 Mya298.3 Mya

97 occurrences of Iniopterygia on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

97 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

13 formations

Linton — 39.75°N, 87.34°WLinton — 40.94°N, 90.27°WLinton — 39.89°N, 87.44°WLinton — 40.46°N, 86.96°WLinton — 39.79°N, 87.38°WLinton — 39.46°N, 87.19°WLinton — 41.02°N, 87.29°WCarbondale — 38.28°N, 87.17°WCarbondale — 41.18°N, 88.22°WCarbondale — 40.58°N, 90.37°WStaunton — 39.85°N, 87.30°WDennis — 41.47°N, 96.01°WDennis — 41.34°N, 95.89°WDennis — 41.14°N, 95.98°WDennis — 41.32°N, 94.00°WWesterville — 41.06°N, 96.06°WWesterville — 41.14°N, 95.98°WHeath — 46.95°N, 108.96°WLecompton — 40.97°N, 95.84°WStranger — 38.88°N, 95.30°WCoffeyville — 36.07°N, 96.01°WLabette — 41.87°N, 93.88°WExcello Shale — 38.28°N, 87.18°WBoggy — 34.43°N, 96.96°WLimestone Coal — 55.92°N, 4.33°W

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The named rock units Iniopterygia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Iniopterygia and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Iniopterygia and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

126 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 59 sites for Iniopterygia, 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

7 references

Each of the 97 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 Iniopterygia

Credit
SeismicShrimp
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Iniopterygia 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 itChondrichthyes through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zangerl and Case 1973