Lepisosteus

Lepisosteus is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae. It contains four extant species, found throughout eastern and central North America. It is one of two extant gar genera alongside Atractosteus.

Lepisosteus

Greg Goebel from Loveland CO, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
LepisosteidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lepisosteiformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Lepisosteiformes

Time the record covers

At least 132 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 139.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 429 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 255 of 429 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 26 of 429 occurrencesEocene — about 93 of 429 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 429 occurrencesMiocene — about 23 of 429 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 429 occurrencesPleistocene — about 26 of 429 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–114 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences109–104 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences104–99 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences99–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–90 Mya — about 4 occurrences90–85 Mya — about 3 occurrences85–80 Mya — about 29 occurrences80–76 Mya — about 40 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 59 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 112 occurrences66–61 Mya — about 25 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 5 occurrences57–52 Mya — about 52 occurrences52–47 Mya — about 16 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 9 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 9 occurrences38–33 Mya — about 8 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–9.5 Mya — about 12 occurrences9.5–4.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 30 occurrences132.6 Mya11.7 ka142 Mya0 Mya

429 occurrences of Lepisosteus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

429 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

100 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 47.88°N, 106.20°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.98°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.58°N, 106.30°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.73°N, 104.89°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.15°N, 107.86°WWillwood — 44.58°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.83°N, 109.09°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.67°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.55°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.58°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.74°WWillwood — 44.41°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.77°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.68°N, 108.71°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.80°N, 104.62°WLance — 45.04°N, 108.80°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.52°WLance — 45.39°N, 103.70°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.07°N, 110.45°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WJudith River — 48.97°N, 110.55°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 47.72°N, 109.64°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.40°N, 107.40°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WFrenchman — 49.00°N, 110.55°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.49°N, 97.67°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WFleming — 30.75°N, 95.27°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 31.05°N, 93.21°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.44°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WLameta — 20.35°N, 79.05°ELameta — 17.33°N, 77.78°ELameta — 21.18°N, 80.37°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.95°EKirtland — 36.28°N, 108.18°WKirtland — 36.34°N, 108.06°WKirtland — 36.51°N, 108.32°WOjo Alamo — 36.30°N, 108.03°WOjo Alamo — 36.29°N, 108.10°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.79°N, 100.07°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 42.07°N, 109.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WSlim Buttes — 45.62°N, 103.93°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WEarnley — 51.08°N, 1.17°W

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The named rock units Lepisosteus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 76 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lepisosteus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Lepisosteus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,349 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 416 sites for Lepisosteus, and this reads 240 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

184 references

Each of the 429 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. 172 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 content2

Picture of Lepisosteus

Credit
Greg Goebel from Loveland CO, USA
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itLepisosteidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1843