Iniopteryx

Iniopteryx is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish known from the Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous period. Fossils of Iniopteryx are known from the U.S. states of Nebraska and Indiana.

Iniopteryx

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
IniopterygidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 315.2 Mya and 303.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 14 of 14 occurrencesCarboniferous315–315 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences315–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 1 occurrence307–306 Mya — about 1 occurrence306–306 Mya — about 1 occurrence306–305 Mya — about 1 occurrence305–305 Mya — about 1 occurrence305–304 Mya — about 1 occurrence304–304 Mya — about 1 occurrence304–304 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences315.7 Mya303.2 Mya

14 occurrences of Iniopteryx 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

14 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

Dennis — 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°WStaunton — 39.85°N, 87.30°WLinton — 39.75°N, 87.34°WCarbondale — 38.28°N, 87.17°W

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

Iniopteryx and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Iniopteryx and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

16 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Iniopteryx, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 14 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 Iniopteryx

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

No 3D scan of Iniopteryx was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itIniopterygidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

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