Makaira

Makaira is a genus of marlin in the family Istiophoridae. It includes the Atlantic blue and Indo-Pacific blue marlins. In the past, the black marlin was also included in this genus, but today it is placed in its own genus, Istiompax.

Makaira

NOAA · Public Domain · 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
IstiophoridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 20 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 20 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 20 occurrencesMiocene — about 12 of 20 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 20 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.2–3.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences48.07 Mya3.6 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

20 occurrences of Makaira 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

20 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

11 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WPietra Leccese — 40.33°N, 18.19°EChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.64°WTrinidad — 23.34°N, 109.62°WTrinidad — 23.17°N, 109.62°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WEastover — 37.81°N, 77.37°WChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.03°WLondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°EBahía Inglesa — 27.16°S, 70.89°W

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The named rock units Makaira has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Makaira and its relatives

Miocene

Where Makaira and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

677 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Makaira, 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

15 references

Each of the 20 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. 3 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 Makaira

Credit
NOAA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Makaira nigricans · UF:Fish:166699

3D model

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

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 itIstiophoridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lacépède 1802