Lepidotidae

Lepidotidae is an extinct family of fish, known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Most species were originally assigned to the genus Lepidotes which was long considered a wastebasket taxon. Cladistic analysis has indicated that they are close relatives of gars, with both being members of the order Lepisosteiformes. Members of the family are known from both marine and freshwater environments. Their bulky body morphology and small median fins suggests that they were slow-moving fish that were capable of performing fine movements in order to grasp prey. Lepidotes sensu stricto had peg-like grasping marginal teeth and crushing palatal teeth, and is known to have consumed small crustaceans, while Scheenstia had low rounded crushing marginal teeth, indicating a durophagous diet.

Lepidotidae

Anagoria · CC BY 3.0 · 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
LepisosteiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes

Time the record covers

At least 89 million years on record.

The record covers at least 182.9 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 184.2 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 1 of 4 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 4 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 0 of 4 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous186–183 Mya — about 1 occurrence166–163 Mya — about 1 occurrence163–160 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences182.9 Mya93.9 Mya186 Mya88 Mya

4 occurrences of Lepidotidae on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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

4 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

Balabansai — 41.34°N, 72.23°EBissekty — 40.70°N, 72.60°E

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The named rock units Lepidotidae 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.

Lepidotidae and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Lepidotidae and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

53 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Lepidotidae, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 Lepidotidae

Credit
Anagoria
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lepidotidae 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 itLepisosteiformes through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1860