Pycnodontidae

Pycnodontidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fishes, ranging from the Jurassic period until the Late Eocene. It was the largest and most derived family of the successful Mesozoic fish order Pycnodontiformes, and one of only two families to survive into the Cenozoic.

Pycnodontidae

User:Haplochromis · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PycnodontiformesPBDB
Diet
durophage, carnivorePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Middle Jurassic — about 15 of 474 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 34 of 474 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 118 of 474 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 234 of 474 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 18 of 474 occurrencesEocene — about 51 of 474 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 474 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 474 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 474 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 474 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 12 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 3 occurrences160–154 Mya — about 12 occurrences154–149 Mya — about 13 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 10 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 8 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 11 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 4 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 26 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 20 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 30 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 13 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 38 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 57 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 22 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 28 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 25 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 44 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 33 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 9 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 20 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 19 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 12 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences165.3 Mya129 ka172 Mya0 Mya

474 occurrences of Pycnodontidae 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

474 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

153 formations

Paluxy — 32.00°N, 98.25°WPaluxy — 32.22°N, 98.20°WPaluxy — 33.12°N, 97.57°WPaluxy — 33.15°N, 97.57°WPaluxy — 32.95°N, 97.69°WPaluxy — 33.50°N, 97.50°WPaluxy — 31.70°N, 98.51°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.34°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WGreenhorn Limestone — 42.64°N, 96.53°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.46°N, 103.05°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.78°N, 98.96°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.65°N, 103.93°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.81°N, 97.38°WKorallenkalk — 52.36°N, 9.70°ECarlile Shale — 39.89°N, 98.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.78°N, 98.15°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 39.04°N, 99.07°WCarlile Shale — 39.60°N, 98.72°WLa Huérguina — 40.22°N, 1.98°WLa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WAkrabou — 30.51°N, 4.84°WAkrabou — 31.86°N, 4.88°WUmm Himar — 21.17°N, 41.42°ESubathu — 30.98°N, 76.98°ESubathu — 32.50°N, 75.50°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EGlen Rose Limestone — 32.37°N, 97.69°WGlen Rose Limestone — 32.23°N, 98.23°WTar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WTar Heel — 34.61°N, 78.60°WEutaw — 33.70°N, 88.50°WEutaw — 33.52°N, 88.40°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WLameta — 20.35°N, 79.05°ELameta — 21.18°N, 80.37°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.95°ELameta — 22.92°N, 80.93°EHythe — 51.24°N, 0.05°WTwin Mountains — 32.27°N, 97.91°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EKhodzhakul — 40.60°N, 71.83°ESannine — 34.06°N, 35.69°ERomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WTallahatta — 31.38°N, 86.67°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.28°N, 11.65°EScaglia Variegata Alpina — 45.85°N, 11.86°EMenuha — 30.56°N, 34.65°EHolleywell, New Pit, Lewes — 51.30°N, 0.39°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ESolnhofen — 48.94°N, 8.41°EDammam — 25.22°N, 50.83°EDammam — 25.43°N, 50.80°E

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The named rock units Pycnodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 129 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 144 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pycnodontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

3,373 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 359 sites for Pycnodontidae, and this reads 240 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

242 references

Each of the 474 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. 230 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 Pycnodontidae

Credit
User:Haplochromis
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itPycnodontiformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Agassiz 1833)