Ionoscopiformes

Ionoscopiformes is an extinct order of largely marine, ray-finned fish generally considered to be the sister group to Amiiformes, an order that contains the modern Bowfin. The earliest members of the order are found in Middle Triassic deposits in all continents besides Australia and Antarctica, showing that the group was very widespread even during this time. They would continue to diversify throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous with the youngest records of the group being during the Albian. The order has had a complicated taxonomic history since the 2010s with authors suggesting that the group my not be monophyletic, instead separating members into Ionoscopiformes and Ophiopsiformes. However, more recent studies do find the group to be a true clade. Currently, the order contains four generally accepted families. A fifth family, Furidae, mentioned in the literature though some more recent papers consider it a synonym of what was once Ophiopsidae and it's generally not used in phylogenies focused on the group.

Ionoscopiformes

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
HalecomorphiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 142 million years on record.

The record covers at least 243.43 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 244.4 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 48 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 40 of 48 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 48 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 48 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 3 of 48 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 2 of 48 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 48 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 48 occurrences247–242 Mya — about 4 occurrences242–237 Mya — about 36 occurrences169–164 Mya — about 3 occurrences153–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–143 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences138–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–91 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences243.43 Mya100.5 Mya247 Mya91 Mya

48 occurrences of Ionoscopiformes on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

48 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

Falang — 25.13°N, 104.75°EFalang — 25.20°N, 105.01°EFalang — 25.14°N, 104.57°EFalang — 24.71°N, 104.33°EFalang — 25.03°N, 104.75°EFalang — 25.11°N, 104.75°EFalang — 24.84°N, 104.00°EPerledo-Varenna — 46.02°N, 9.30°EGuanling — 24.71°N, 104.33°EAnoual — 32.52°N, 3.11°WAnoual — 32.73°N, 3.14°WAnoual — 32.73°N, 3.15°WCassina — 45.91°N, 8.95°EBesano — 45.89°N, 8.90°EMuschelkalk — 41.26°N, 1.14°ELa Cabaña — 43.34°N, 5.84°WProsanto — 46.68°N, 9.82°EMeride — 45.88°N, 8.90°EMeride — 45.89°N, 8.95°ENusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°EGongila — 10.94°N, 11.45°E

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The named rock units Ionoscopiformes 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.

Ionoscopiformes and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Ionoscopiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

346 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Ionoscopiformes, 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

23 references

Each of the 48 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. 11 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 Ionoscopiformes

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ionoscopiformes 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 itHalecomorphi through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Grande and Bemis 1998