Oxyosteus

Oxyosteus is a genus of trout-sized, highly compressed arthrodire placoderms from the Late Devonian of Europe: The two described species are restricted to the Late Frasnian-aged Kellwasserkalk Fauna of Bad Wildungen, while a median dorsal plate of an unnamed species is known from the Middle Frasnian Holy Cross Mountains of Poland.

Oxyosteus

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
TitanichthyidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Arthrodira
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Arthrodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthrodira

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 382.31 Mya and 372.15 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Devonian — about 3 of 3 occurrencesDevonian382–382 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences379–378 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences378–378 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences378–378 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences378–377 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences377–377 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences377–376 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences376–376 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences376–376 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences376–375 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences375–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–374 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–374 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–374 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–373 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences373–373 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences373–372 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences372–372 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences382.8 Mya371.6 Mya

3 occurrences of Oxyosteus 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

3 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

Kellwasserkalk — 51.08°N, 9.13°E

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The named rock units Oxyosteus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Oxyosteus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Oxyosteus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

67 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Oxyosteus, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 Oxyosteus

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oxyosteus 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 itTitanichthyidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jaeckel 1911