Macruronus

Macruronus is a genus of gadiform fish, the only member of the family Macruronidae. It was formerly placed in the Merlucciidae. Most are found in southern oceans off Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but M. maderensis is only known from Madeira. Members of this genus reach 1–1.3 m (3.3–4.3 ft) in length depending on the exact species involved.

Macruronus

Uncredited · 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
Sits inside
MacruronidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Gadiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Gadiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Gadiformes

Time the record covers

At least 35 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 2.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 1.63 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 34 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 34 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 34 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 34 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 34 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.7–6.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–3.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.6–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–842 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences37.71 Mya2.4 Mya41.8 Mya842 ka

34 occurrences of Macruronus 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

34 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

9 formations

Mount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.14°S, 170.94°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°ESouthburn Sand — 44.42°S, 170.89°ESouthburn Sand — 44.30°S, 171.00°EBells Creek Mudstone — 41.34°S, 175.46°EChatton — 46.11°S, 168.80°ELa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.67°WIhungia — 38.05°S, 178.14°EWharekuri Greensand — 44.66°S, 170.36°ERifle Butts — 45.03°S, 170.02°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Macruronus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macruronus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Macruronus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

301 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Macruronus, 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 34 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 Macruronus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Macruronus 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 itMacruronidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Guenther 1873