Pycnodus

Pycnodus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Eocene period. It is a wastebasket taxon, although many fossils from the Jurassic or Cretaceous are assigned to this genus, only the Eocene species, P. apodus is valid. As its name suggests, it is the type genus of Pycnodontiformes.

Pycnodus

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
PycnodontinaePBDB
Diet
durophage, carnivorePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pycnodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pycnodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 112 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 10 of 112 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 23 of 112 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 26 of 112 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 14 of 112 occurrencesEocene — about 38 of 112 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 112 occurrences171–166 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences166–162 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences162–157 Mya — about 3 occurrences157–152 Mya — about 5 occurrences152–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 1 occurrence138–134 Mya — about 5 occurrences134–129 Mya — about 3 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 6 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 1 occurrence115–110 Mya — about 4 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 1 occurrence106–101 Mya — about 1 occurrence101–96 Mya — about 3 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 4 occurrences92–87 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 10 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 9 occurrences64–59 Mya — about 5 occurrences59–54 Mya — about 10 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 13 occurrences50–45 Mya — about 10 occurrences45–41 Mya — about 8 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences165.3 Mya37.71 Mya171 Mya31 Mya

112 occurrences of Pycnodus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

112 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

37 formations

Korallenkalk — 52.36°N, 9.70°EUmm Himar — 21.17°N, 41.42°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ESubathu — 30.98°N, 76.98°ESubathu — 32.50°N, 75.50°ELameta — 20.35°N, 79.05°ELameta — 21.18°N, 80.37°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.95°ETallahatta — 31.38°N, 86.67°WTallahatta — 31.31°N, 88.73°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WDammam — 25.22°N, 50.83°EDammam — 25.43°N, 50.80°EMénaka — 18.33°N, 2.00°EMénaka — 16.75°N, 2.50°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°EZone de Pierre jaune — 47.05°N, 7.08°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WCotinguiba — 10.85°S, 37.17°WTakli — 21.15°N, 79.10°ETenejapa-Lacandon — 17.46°N, 92.04°WTenejapa-Lacandon — 17.41°N, 91.97°WTeberemt, Tamaguélelt, Continental Terminal — 16.32°N, 2.77°EArgile des Flandres — 50.83°N, 4.34°EArgile des Flandres — 50.85°N, 4.37°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.70°N, 0.01°WContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°ETeplice — 50.40°N, 13.94°EVuache — 46.83°N, 6.52°EPerte du Rhône — 46.83°N, 6.52°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WUmm al-Rua’us — 26.43°N, 50.11°EHarudi — 23.51°N, 68.69°EMugher Mudstone — 9.45°N, 38.62°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pycnodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 32 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pycnodus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pycnodus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,615 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Pycnodus, 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

46 references

Each of the 112 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. 34 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 content3

Picture of Pycnodus

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pycnodus maliensis · nhmuk:pal:PV P 75894

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Palaeoart
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itPycnodontinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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