Kenichthys

Kenichthys is a genus of sarcopterygian fish from the Devonian period, and a member of the clade Tetrapodomorpha. The only known species of the genus is Kenichthys campbelli, the first remains of which were found in China in 1993. The genus is important to the study of the evolution of tetrapods due to the unique nature of its nostrils, which provide vital evidence regarding the evolutionary transition of fish-like nostrils to the tetrapod choanae.

Kenichthys

Daeng Dino · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikidata/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
TetrapodomorphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 399.5 Mya and 387.95 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Devonian — about 2 of 2 occurrencesDevonian400–399 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences399–399 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences399–398 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences398–398 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences398–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences396–396 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences396–395 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences395–395 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences395–395 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences395–394 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences394–394 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences400 Mya387.4 Mya

2 occurrences of Kenichthys on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

2 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

2 formations

Shangshuanghe — 25.74°N, 103.38°ECorradigbee — 35.10°S, 148.65°E

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

Kenichthys and its relatives

Devonian

Where Kenichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

16 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Kenichthys, 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 2 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 Kenichthys

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

No 3D scan of Kenichthys 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 itTetrapodomorpha through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Chang and Zhu 1993