Paralichthys
Paralichthys is a genus of large-tooth flounders. Most species are native to the coastal waters of the Americas, but P. olivaceus is from northeast Asia. The largest species reaches about 1.5 m (5 ft) in length.

User:Vmenkov · 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
- ParalichthyidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Time the record covers
At least 11 million years on record.
The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.
14 occurrences of Paralichthys 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
14 occurrences- Miocene26%
- Pliocene28%
- Pleistocene39%
- Holocene7%
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
8 formations
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation4
- Yorktown Formation · Chesapeake Group1
- Purisima Formation1
- Monterey Formation1
- Iwami Formation · Tottori Group1
- Wilson Grove Formation1
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The named rock units Paralichthys 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.
Paralichthys and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Paralichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,077 taxa- Myliobatis californica7 sites
- Carcharodon carcharias6 sites
- Cymatogaster aggregata6 sites
- Engraulis mordax6 sites
- Galeorhinus galeus6 sites
- Genyonemus lineatus6 sites
- Isurus oxyrinchus6 sites
- Porichthys notatus6 sites
- Raja6 sites
- Seriphus politus6 sites
- Triakis semifasciata6 sites
- Atherinopsis californiensis5 sites
- Chilara taylori5 sites
- Lepidogobius lepidus5 sites
- Ophidion scrippsae5 sites
- Squatina californica5 sites
- Alopias vulpinus4 sites
- Carcharhinus4 sites
- Citharichthys4 sites
- Citharichthys sordidus4 sites
- Citharichthys stigmaeus4 sites
- Heterodontus francisci4 sites
- Merluccius productus4 sites
- Mysticeti4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Paralichthys, 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
13 references- Fish remains, mostly otoliths and teeth, from the Palos Verdes Sand (Late Pleistocene) of California2
- What do we know about Neogene bony fishes from Chile? Diversity and biogeographic implications1
- Fossil fish otoliths from the Chibanian Miyata Formation, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, with comments on the paleoenvironment1
- Geology and Paleontology of the Late Miocene Wilson Grove Formation at Bloomfield Quarry, Sonoma County, California1
- A new marine vertebrate assemblage from the Late Neogene Purisima Formation in Central California, Part I: Fossil sharks, bony fish, birds, and implications for the age of the Purisimia Formation west of the San Gregorio Fault1
- The Neogene sharks, rays, and bony fishes from Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina1
- Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic fish faunas of Japan1
- Preliminary List of the Marine Fishes and Other Vertebrate Remains from the Late Pleistocene Palos Verdes Sand Formation at Costa Mesa, Orange County, California1
- Paralichthys yamanai, a new middle Miocene lefteye flatfish from Tottori, Japan1
- Otoliths and other fish remains from the Chumash Midden at Rincon Point (SBa-1) Santa Barbara-Ventura counties, California1
- Otoliths and other fish remains from a Long Beach, California, Pliocene deposit1
- Fish records from the Pleistocene of southern California in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum1
Each of the 14 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. 1 further reference is 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 Paralichthys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- User:Vmenkov
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Paralichthys 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 itParalichthyidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Girard 1858