Microgadus proximus
Microgadus proximus, also commonly known as Pacific tomcod, is a type of cod fish found in North American coastal waters from the southeastern Bering Sea to central California. This species can reach a length of 30.5 cm (12.0 in).

Anonymous Unknown author · 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
- Pacific tomcodPBDB
- Sits inside
- MicrogadusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Gadiformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Gadiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Gadiformes
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.
9 occurrences of Microgadus proximus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
9 occurrences- Pliocene17%
- Pleistocene83%
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
6 formations
- Port Orford Formation2
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation1
- Elk River Formation1
- San Pedro Formation1
- Timms Point Silt Formation1
- Niguel Formation1
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The named rock units Microgadus proximus 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.
Microgadus proximus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Microgadus proximus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
241 taxa- Cymatogaster aggregata7 sites
- Glyptocephalus zachirus6 sites
- Merluccius productus6 sites
- Raja6 sites
- Seriphus politus6 sites
- Ammodytes hexapterus5 sites
- Citharichthys sordidus5 sites
- Engraulis mordax5 sites
- Galeorhinus galeus5 sites
- Genyonemus lineatus5 sites
- Leptocottus armatus5 sites
- Porichthys notatus5 sites
- Carcharhinus4 sites
- Carcharodon carcharias4 sites
- Chilara taylori4 sites
- Citharichthys stigmaeus4 sites
- Cottidae4 sites
- Cryptacanthodes aleutensis4 sites
- Isurus oxyrinchus4 sites
- Lycodes pacificus4 sites
- Parophrys vetulus4 sites
- Sebastes (Sebastodes)4 sites
- Triakis semifasciata4 sites
- Atheresthes stomias3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Microgadus proximus, 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
7 references- The Marine Fish Fauna of the Middle Pleistocene Port Orford Formation3
- Preliminary List of the Marine Fishes and Other Vertebrate Remains from the Late Pleistocene Palos Verdes Sand Formation at Costa Mesa, Orange County, California1
- Fish remains, mostly otoliths and teeth, from the Palos Verdes Sand (Late Pleistocene) of California1
- A Late Pliocene macrofossil fauna of Newport Beach, Orange County, California1
- Otoliths and other fish remains from the Timms Point Silt (Early Pleistocene) at San Pedro, California1
- The marine fish fauna, based primarily on otoliths, of a Lower Pleistocene deposit at San Pedro, California (LACMIP 332, San Pedro Sand)1
- Otoliths and other fish remains from a Long Beach, California, Pliocene deposit1
Each of the 9 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 Microgadus proximus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Anonymous Unknown author
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Microgadus proximus · UWFC:ADULT COLLECTION:UW 114563
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 itMicrogadus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Girard 1845)