Onychodus

Searched as Onychodus arcticus. The Paleobiology Database treats Onychodus as the accepted name.

Onychodus is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian Period. It is one of the best known of the group of onychodontiform fishes. Scattered fossil teeth of Onychodus were first described from Ohio in 1857 by John Strong Newberry. Other species were found in Australia, England, Norway and Germany showing that it had a widespread range.

Onychodus

Kate Trinajstic; Derek E. G. Briggs; John A. Long · CC BY 4.0 · 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
OnychodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 5.7 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 387.95 Mya and 382.31 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Devonian — about 1 of 1 occurrenceDevonian388–388 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387–386 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences386–385 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–383 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences388.4 Mya381.8 Mya

1 occurrence of Onychodus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

1 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

1 formation

Tordalen — 78.67°N, 16.22°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Onychodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Onychodus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Onychodus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

282 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Onychodus, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Onychodus

Credit
Kate Trinajstic; Derek E. G. Briggs; John A. Long
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Onychodus jandemarrai · wam:01.10.04

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 itOnychodontidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newberry 1857