Lepidogobius lepidus
Lepidogobius lepidus, the bay goby or finescale goby, is a noticeably resilient and adaptable species of goby, native to the Pacific coast of North America from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico where it can be found on muddy substrates from the intertidal zone to about 200 metres (660 ft). This species grows to a length of 10 centimetres (3.9 in) TL. This species is the only extant member of its genus. They can flourish in various kinds of habitats, including brackish waters that have fluctuating salinities. The bay goby has a flattened body, and a distinctive head shape which allows it to seamlessly blend into its surroundings. They appear to be light brown to tan in colour with dark spots or markings on its body. This type of goby fish also possesses a fused fin that forms a disc-like suction which aids in their ability to cling to surfaces and not get swept away by currents. These little fish play a crucial role in the food web of their ecosystems as they are both predators of small crustaceans and prey for large fish.

Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions · 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- Also called
- bay gobyPBDB
- Sits inside
- LepidogobiusPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.
5 occurrences of Lepidogobius lepidus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
5 occurrences- Pliocene20%
- Pleistocene80%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Lepidogobius lepidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Lepidogobius lepidus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Lepidogobius lepidus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
443 taxa- Chilara taylori5 sites
- Cymatogaster aggregata5 sites
- Engraulis mordax5 sites
- Galeorhinus galeus5 sites
- Genyonemus lineatus5 sites
- Myliobatis californica5 sites
- Ophidion scrippsae5 sites
- Paralichthys californicus5 sites
- Porichthys notatus5 sites
- Seriphus politus5 sites
- Triakis semifasciata5 sites
- Atherinopsis californiensis4 sites
- Carcharhinus4 sites
- Carcharodon carcharias4 sites
- Citharichthys sordidus4 sites
- Citharichthys stigmaeus4 sites
- Porichthys myriaster4 sites
- Raja4 sites
- Squatina californica4 sites
- Cancer productus3 sites
- Citharichthys3 sites
- Cynoscion reticulatus3 sites
- Electrona rissoi3 sites
- Heterodontus francisci3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Lepidogobius lepidus, 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
4 references- Fish remains, mostly otoliths and teeth, from the Palos Verdes Sand (Late Pleistocene) of California2
- Preliminary List of the Marine Fishes and Other Vertebrate Remains from the Late Pleistocene Palos Verdes Sand Formation at Costa Mesa, Orange County, California1
- Otoliths and other fish remains from a Long Beach, California, Pliocene deposit1
- The fish fauna of the Playa Del Rey locality, a southern California marine Pleistocene deposit1
Each of the 5 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 Lepidogobius lepidus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Internet Archive Book Images
- Licence
- No restrictions
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Lepidogobius lepidus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.
MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Bay goby”
- 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 itLepidogobius through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Girard 1858)