Pseudophichthys

Pseudophichthys splendens, the purple-mouthed conger, is a species of eel in the family Congridae. It is the only member of its genus. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean at depths of 123–1,647 meters (404–5,404 ft).

Pseudophichthys

DEEPEND Consortium (Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico) · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
CongridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Anguilliformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Anguilliformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Anguilliformes

Time the record covers

At least 38 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 16 of 33 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 33 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 33 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences41.03 Mya2.58 Mya49 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Pseudophichthys on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

33 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

11 formations

Cook Mountain — 30.61°N, 96.57°WCook Mountain — 31.33°N, 95.52°WCook Mountain — 32.03°N, 88.70°WLindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EWeches — 31.22°N, 96.04°W“upper” Lisbon — 31.82°N, 88.24°WRosefield — 31.89°N, 92.00°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WBlanch Point — 35.25°S, 138.46°EKosciusko — 32.02°N, 88.71°WMoodys Branch — 31.89°N, 88.39°WPiney Point — 37.61°N, 76.76°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pseudophichthys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pseudophichthys and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pseudophichthys and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

515 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Pseudophichthys, 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 33 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 Pseudophichthys

Source
GBIF
Credit
DEEPEND Consortium (Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pseudophichthys 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 itCongridae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Roule 1915