Platycephalidae

The Platycephalidae are a family of marine ray-finned fish, most commonly referred to as flatheads. They ambush predators which lay on the seabed, being demersal. The family ranges throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Platycephalidae

Uncredited · 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
PerciformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Perciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Perciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Perciformes

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.9 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 49 occurrencesEocene — about 22 of 49 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 49 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 49 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 49 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 49 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 5 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences48.9 Mya774 ka57 Mya0 Mya

49 occurrences of Platycephalidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

49 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

16 formations

Waihao Greensand — 44.40°S, 171.04°EMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°ESouthburn Sand — 44.42°S, 170.89°ESouthburn Sand — 44.30°S, 171.00°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.85°S, 170.52°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.66°S, 170.65°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°ECalcaire Grossier — 49.31°N, 2.25°EAalter — 50.79°N, 2.78°EAalter — 51.09°N, 3.46°EMiretrain Marl — 43.56°N, 1.11°WPort Campbell Limestone — 38.62°S, 142.98°EWharekuri Greensand — 44.66°S, 170.37°EOtekaeike Limestone — 44.81°S, 170.53°EChatton — 46.11°S, 168.80°ELede — 50.92°N, 3.78°ENavidad — 33.91°S, 71.84°WLacui — 41.75°S, 73.84°WMiyata — 35.19°N, 39.65°E

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The named rock units Platycephalidae 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.

Platycephalidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Platycephalidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

514 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Platycephalidae, 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

14 references

Each of the 49 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. 2 further references are 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 Platycephalidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Platycephalidae 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 itPerciformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.