Neoceratodus

Neoceratodus is a genus of lungfish in the family Neoceratodontidae. The extant Australian lungfish is the only surviving member of this genus, but it was formerly much more widespread, being distributed throughout Africa, Australia, and South America. Species were also much more diverse in body plan; for example, the Cretaceous species Neoceratodus africanus was a gigantic species that coexisted with Spinosaurus in what is now the Kem Kem Formation of Morocco. The earliest fossils from this genus are of Neoceratodus potkooroki from the mid Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian) Griman Creek Formation of Australia; remains from the Late Jurassic of Uruguay assigned to this genus probably do not belong to the genus.

Neoceratodus

Vassil · 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
Also called
Queensland lungfishPBDB
Sits inside
NeoceratodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
lagoonal,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Dipnoi

Time the record covers

At least 137 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 40 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 10 of 40 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 15 of 40 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesOligocene — about 13 of 40 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 40 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 40 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 2 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 3 occurrences116–110 Mya — about 2 occurrences110–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–100 Mya — about 2 occurrences100–95 Mya — about 10 occurrences95–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–84 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences79–74 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences74–68 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 10 occurrences11–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences143.1 Mya5.333 Mya158 Mya0 Mya

40 occurrences of Neoceratodus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

40 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

15 formations

Namba — 31.23°S, 140.23°ENamba — 31.02°S, 140.32°EGriman Creek — 29.46°S, 147.96°EGriman Creek — 29.45°S, 147.76°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.40°N, 7.82°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.53°N, 9.05°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.66°S, 145.68°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.54°S, 145.40°EIfezouane — 31.51°N, 4.08°WIfezouane — 31.59°N, 4.18°WGrès rouges — 31.55°N, 2.43°WGrès rouges — 32.04°N, 2.58°WBahariya — 28.33°N, 29.12°EMissão Velha — 7.26°S, 39.14°WGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°EAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAdamantina — 21.94°S, 51.37°WTacuarembó — 31.80°S, 56.13°WContinental Intercalaire — 33.19°N, 10.29°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EMoorna — 34.12°S, 141.65°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Neoceratodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Neoceratodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

232 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Neoceratodus, 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

18 references

Each of the 40 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. 6 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 Neoceratodus

Credit
Vassil
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Neoceratodus 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 itNeoceratodontidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Castelnau 1876