Protitanichthys

Protitanichthys is an extinct genus of comparatively large coccosteid arthrodire placoderms from the Middle Devonian of the eastern United States. Fossils are found primarily in the Eifelian-epoch aged Delaware Limestone of Ohio, and the Lower Givetian-aged Rockport Quarry Limestone of Michigan

Protitanichthys

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PanxiosteidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Arthrodira
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Arthrodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthrodira

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 393.47 Mya and 382.31 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Devonian — about 4 of 4 occurrencesDevonian394–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences387–386 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences386–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences384–383 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences394 Mya381.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Protitanichthys 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

4 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

Narva — 59.38°N, 28.19°ERockport Quarry Limestone — 45.20°N, 83.39°WFour Mile Dam — 45.08°N, 83.43°WDelaware Limestone — 40.30°N, 83.07°W

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The named rock units Protitanichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Protitanichthys and its relatives

Devonian

Where Protitanichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

23 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Protitanichthys, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 Protitanichthys

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protitanichthys 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 itPanxiosteidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Eastman 1908