Redfieldius

Redfieldius is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish that inhabited eastern North America during the Early Jurassic period. It contains a single species, R. gracilis, known from the Hettangian to the Sinemurian of the northeastern United States. It is the type genus and was the last surviving member of the order Redfieldiiformes, which was widespread and diverse throughout the preceding Triassic period. It is notable for representing possibly the first fossil bony fish collected from North America, with a specimen from Middletown collected in 1816 by Benjamin Silliman.

Redfieldius

Redfieldius_gracilis_Exhibit_Museum_of_Natural_History.JPG : Daderot derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk ) · Public Domain · 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
RedfieldiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Palaeonisciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Palaeonisciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Palaeonisciformes

Time the record covers

At least 6.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 205.7 Mya to 199.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 227.3 Mya to 192.9 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 4 of 17 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 13 of 17 occurrencesEarly Jurassic228–227 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences222–221 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences221–220 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences220–218 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences217–216 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences214–212 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences211–210 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 4 occurrences201–199 Mya — about 5 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences195–193 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences205.7 Mya199.5 Mya228 Mya192.2 Mya

17 occurrences of Redfieldius on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

17 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

7 formations

Shuttle Meadow — 41.42°N, 72.72°WShuttle Meadow — 41.40°N, 72.77°WEast Berlin — 41.34°N, 72.77°WEast Berlin — 41.60°N, 72.71°WEast Berlin — 41.45°N, 72.74°WBoonton — 40.90°N, 74.40°WLockatong — 40.20°N, 75.27°WBull Run — 38.83°N, 77.70°WMidland — 38.62°N, 77.74°WPortland — 41.50°N, 72.70°W

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

Redfieldius and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Redfieldius and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Redfieldius, 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

6 references

Each of the 17 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 Redfieldius

Credit
Redfieldius_gracilis_Exhibit_Museum_of_Natural_History.JPG : Daderot derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk )
Licence
Public Domain
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 itRedfieldiidae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hay 1899