Lophius

Members of the genus Lophius, commonly called monkfish, toadfish, sea frogs, fishing frogs, frogfish, and sea devils, are various species of lophiid anglerfishes found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Lophius is known as the "monk" or "monkfish" to the North Sea and North Atlantic fishermen, a name which also belongs to Squatina squatina, the angelshark, a type of shark. The North European species is Lophius piscatorius, and the Mediterranean species is Lophius budegassa.

Lophius

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 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
LophiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lophiiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lophiiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Lophiiformes

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 27 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 27 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 27 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 27 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 27 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 27 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 27 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences56 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

27 occurrences of Lophius on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

27 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

8 formations

Boom — 51.09°N, 4.36°EBoom — 51.11°N, 4.33°EAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WKempsville — 36.79°N, 76.17°WRaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WSables d'Anvers — 51.13°N, 4.29°EBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.66°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°E

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The named rock units Lophius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lophius and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lophius and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,179 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Lophius, 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

Each of the 27 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 content3

Picture of Lophius

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lophius piscatorius · UF:Fish:118531

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itLophiidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)