Platyrhinidae

The Platyrhinidae are a family of rays, commonly known as thornbacks due to their dorsal rows of large thorns. They resemble guitarfishes in shape. Though traditionally classified with stingrays, molecular evidence suggests they are more closely related to electric rays in the order Torpediniformes.

Platyrhinidae

OpenCage.info · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
PlatyrhinoideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myliobatiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Myliobatiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myliobatiformes

Time the record covers

At least 89 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 18 of 38 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 38 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 18 of 38 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 38 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 3 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 6 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.2–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence89.8 Mya129 ka96 Mya0 Mya

38 occurrences of Platyrhinidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

38 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

10 formations

Birket Qarun — 29.28°N, 30.03°ENewhaven Chalk — 51.45°N, 1.36°WNewhaven Chalk — 50.88°N, 0.81°WNewhaven Chalk — 50.67°N, 1.10°WMidawara — 29.08°N, 30.12°EWulagen — 39.69°N, 75.27°EWulagen — 39.60°N, 75.12°EGehannam — 29.33°N, 30.08°EAkrabou — 31.86°N, 4.88°WLodo — 36.61°N, 120.68°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WKuma — 45.10°N, 34.63°ECulver Chalk — 50.85°N, 1.15°W

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The named rock units Platyrhinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Platyrhinidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Platyrhinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

586 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Platyrhinidae, 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

12 references

Each of the 38 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 Platyrhinidae

Credit
OpenCage.info
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Platyrhinidae 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 itPlatyrhinoidei through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jordan 1923