Osmeridae

Smelts are a family of small fish, the Osmeridae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, as well as rivers, streams and lakes in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. They are also known as freshwater smelts or typical smelts to distinguish them from the related Argentinidae, Bathylagidae, and Retropinnidae.

Osmeridae

Surf_Smelt,_Pond_smelt.jpg : Drawing by H. L. Todd, NOAA's Historic Fisheries Collection derivative work: ManfromButt… · 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
OsmeroideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Osmeriformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Osmeriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osmeriformes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Osmeriformes

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 8 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences13.82 Mya774 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Osmeridae 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

8 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

Port Campbell Limestone — 37.72°S, 141.93°EIwami — 35.48°N, 134.27°EMiyata — 35.19°N, 39.65°ESan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°W

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The named rock units Osmeridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Osmeridae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Osmeridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

181 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Osmeridae, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 Osmeridae

Credit
Surf_Smelt,_Pond_smelt.jpg : Drawing by H. L. Todd, NOAA's Historic Fisheries Collection derivative work: ManfromButt…
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Osmeridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itOsmeroidei through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Regan 1913