Maurolicus muelleri

Maurolicus muelleri, commonly referred to as Mueller's pearlside, Mueller's bristle-mouth fish, or the silvery lightfish, is a marine hatchetfish in the genus Maurolicus, found in deep tropical, subtropical and temperate waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, from the surface to depths of 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). It can grow to a maximum total length of 8 centimetres (3.1 in).

Maurolicus muelleri

Uncredited · 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
Also called
Mueller's pearlsidePBDB
Sits inside
MaurolicusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Sternoptychidae
Life habit
nektonic, depth=deepPBDB, for Sternoptychidae
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Sternoptychidae
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Sternoptychidae
Environment
oceanic,marinePBDB, for Sternoptychidae

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.

Oligocene — about 1 of 52 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 31 of 52 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 52 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 10 of 52 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 9 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 11 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences23.04 Mya774 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

52 occurrences of Maurolicus muelleri 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

52 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

Lindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EMakrilia — 35.04°N, 25.76°ERaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WAbad — 37.09°N, 2.08°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Maurolicus muelleri has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Maurolicus muelleri and its relatives

Miocene

Where Maurolicus muelleri and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

712 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 51 sites for Maurolicus muelleri, 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

23 references

Each of the 52 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. 11 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 content1

Picture of Maurolicus muelleri

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

No 3D scan of Maurolicus muelleri was found in Sketchfab.

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 itMaurolicus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gmelin 1789)