Lobianchia dofleini
Lobianchia dofleini, also known as Dofleini's lantern fish, is a species of lanternfish. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean.

Emma Kissling · Public Domain · 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- Also called
- Dofleini's lanternfishPBDB
- Sits inside
- LobianchiaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Time the record covers
At least 22 million years on record.
The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 129 ka.
35 occurrences of Lobianchia dofleini 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
35 occurrences- Oligocene3%
- Miocene51%
- Pliocene14%
- Pleistocene31%
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
6 formations
- Lindos Bay Formation3
- Bowden Formation1
- Bells Creek Mudstone Formation1
- Hijikata Formation1
- Sant’Agata Fossili Formation1
- Argille Azzurre Formation1
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The named rock units Lobianchia dofleini has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Lobianchia dofleini and its relatives
MioceneWhere Lobianchia dofleini and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
542 taxa- Lesueurigobius19 sites
- Maurolicus muelleri18 sites
- Gadiculus argenteus17 sites
- Ceratoscopelus maderensis15 sites
- Hygophum15 sites
- Notoscopelus elongatus15 sites
- Scopelopsis pliocenicus15 sites
- Deltentosteus14 sites
- Diaphus holti14 sites
- Diaphus taaningi13 sites
- Dentex12 sites
- Diaphus rafinesquii12 sites
- Hygophum benoiti12 sites
- Myctophum punctatum12 sites
- Otolithus labiatus12 sites
- Benthosema glaciale11 sites
- Diaphus11 sites
- Diaphus cavallonis11 sites
- Gobius11 sites
- Myctophum11 sites
- Phycis11 sites
- Diaphus splendidus10 sites
- Bregmaceros9 sites
- Hygophum hygomi9 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Lobianchia dofleini, 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
16 references- Tortonian teleost otoliths from northern Italy: taxonomic synthesis and stratigraphic significance5
- Pleistocene fish otoliths from the Mediterranean Basin: a synthesis4
- Otolithes de poissons du paléocanyon de saubrigues (chattien à langhien), aquitaine méridionale, France4
- The fossil otolith record of fishes (Vertebrata: Teleostei) in Greece3
- Pleistocene marine fish invasions and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the eastern Mediterranean3
- Connectivity controls on the late Miocene eastern Mediterranean fish fauna2
- Paleobathymetric interpretation of the fish otoliths from the lower - middle quaternary deposits of Kephallonia and Zakynthos islands (Ionian Sea, Western Greece)2
- Fish otoliths from the pre-evaporitic (Early Messinian) sediments of northern Italy: their stratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic significance2
- Données récentes sur Les téléostéens du Miocène et du Pliocéne d'Italie2
- Les otholites de téléostéens des Marnes de Saubrigues (Miocène d'Aquitaine Méridionale, France)2
- Reconstruction of the fossil marine bony fish fauna (Teleostei) from the Eocene to Pleistocene of New Zealand by means of otoliths. With studies of Recent congroid, morid and trachinoid otoliths1
- Lanternfish otoliths (Teleostei, Myctophidae) from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Japan1
Each of the 35 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. 4 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 Lobianchia dofleini
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Emma Kissling
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- MCZ Ichthyology
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Lobianchia dofleini · MCZ:Ich:157862
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 itLobianchia through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Zugmayer 1911)