Istiophoridae

Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority.

Istiophoridae

NOAA · Public Domain · 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
IstiophoriformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 53 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 774 ka.

Paleocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesEocene — about 8 of 42 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 42 occurrencesMiocene — about 19 of 42 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 13 of 42 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 42 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–46 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–14 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 4 occurrences10–8.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.1–6.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.0–4.0 Mya — about 8 occurrences4.0–2.0 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.0–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences56 Mya2.58 Mya60 Mya0 Mya

42 occurrences of Istiophoridae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

42 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

20 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WPietra Leccese — 40.33°N, 18.19°EBahía Inglesa — 27.14°S, 70.88°WBahía Inglesa — 27.04°S, 70.79°WBahía Inglesa — 27.16°S, 70.89°WTrinidad — 23.34°N, 109.62°WTrinidad — 23.34°N, 109.66°WTrinidad — 23.17°N, 109.62°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WEastover — 37.81°N, 77.37°WEastover — 37.30°N, 77.19°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.64°WVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WDeguynos — 33.03°N, 116.05°WSables à Gryphaea virleti — 43.61°N, 3.88°EShark River — 40.20°N, 74.17°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.03°WWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.17°W

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The named rock units Istiophoridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Istiophoridae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Istiophoridae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,250 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Istiophoridae, 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

30 references

Each of the 42 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. 18 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 Istiophoridae

Credit
NOAA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Istiophoridae 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 itIstiophoriformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.