Macropoma

Macropoma is an extinct genus of coelacanth in the class Sarcopterygii. Fossils of Macropoma have been found in both England and Czech Republic, dating to the mid-Cretaceous (Albian-Turonian). Recorded fossils have bodies under two feet in length. A modern coelacanth measures five or more, but in other respects the two genera are remarkably similar, and share the same body plan with a three-lobed tail and stalked fins.

Macropoma

Harold9595959 · CC0 · 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
LatimeriinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 6 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 6 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 6 occurrencesLate Cretaceous150–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences140–138 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences138–136 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences145.06 Mya93.9 Mya150 Mya89 Mya

6 occurrences of Macropoma on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

6 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

4 formations

Lewes Nodular Chalk — 51.25°N, 2.16°WGrey Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.17°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESpeeton Clay — 54.27°N, 0.40°W

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The named rock units Macropoma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macropoma and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Macropoma, 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

6 references

Each of the 6 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 content2

Picture of Macropoma

Credit
Harold9595959
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itLatimeriinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1833