Protosphyraena

Protosphyraena is a fossil genus of swordfish-like marine fish, that thrived worldwide during the Cretaceous period (Albian-Maastrichtian). Fossil remains of this taxon are mainly discovered in North America, Europe and Australia, with potential specimens also known from Asia and Africa. Its fossils are best known from the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Formation of Kansas.

Protosphyraena

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
HypsocorminaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pachycormidae
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pachycormiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pachycormiformes

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 55 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 51 of 55 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 55 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 3 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 5 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 5 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 2 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 5 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence119.57 Mya72.2 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

55 occurrences of Protosphyraena on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

55 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

23 formations

Greenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 44.65°N, 103.58°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.04°N, 98.99°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.74°N, 99.04°WFox Hills — 46.05°N, 103.88°WFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.42°WFox Hills — 46.38°N, 100.75°WFox Hills — 46.29°N, 100.18°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.70°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.84°N, 87.89°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WAbrek — 44.08°N, 42.02°EAbrek — 43.99°N, 42.17°EPolpino — 51.97°N, 35.95°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WDakota — 38.92°N, 98.50°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WLa Cabaña — 43.34°N, 5.84°WEagle Ford — 31.53°N, 97.21°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.04°N, 0.15°WScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°ETar Heel — 34.61°N, 78.60°WHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°ECiply-Malogne Phosphatic Chalk — 50.42°N, 3.96°EAtco — 32.53°N, 96.99°WAtherfield Clay — 51.23°N, 0.25°WJizera — 49.96°N, 16.06°EGraneros Shale — 38.93°N, 98.91°WNkalagu Limestone — 6.48°N, 7.78°E

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The named rock units Protosphyraena has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protosphyraena and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

551 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 52 sites for Protosphyraena, 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

35 references

Each of the 55 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. 23 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 content2

Picture of Protosphyraena

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Protosphyraena sp. · YPM:VP:YPM VP 058796

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 itHypsocorminae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1857