Notoscopelus elongatus

Notoscopelus elongatus is a species of lanternfish in the family Myctophidae. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea where it is found in deep water habitats, rising to near the surface to feed at night and descending to great depths by day. It is a common species with no particular threats, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed its conservation status as being of least concern.

Notoscopelus elongatus

Christian Frederik Lütken · 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
NotoscopelusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myctophiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Myctophiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myctophiformes

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 12 of 26 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 26 occurrencesPleistocene — about 14 of 26 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.9–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–8.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.8–8.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.2–7.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.7–7.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.1–6.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences11.63 Mya774 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

26 occurrences of Notoscopelus elongatus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

26 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

2 formations

Lindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°ESant’Agata Fossili — 45.07°N, 7.94°E

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The named rock units Notoscopelus elongatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Notoscopelus elongatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Notoscopelus elongatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

420 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Notoscopelus elongatus, 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

8 references

Each of the 26 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 Notoscopelus elongatus

Credit
Christian Frederik Lütken
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Notoscopelus elongatus 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 itNotoscopelus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Costa 1844)