Rhizodontidae

Rhizodontida is an extinct group of predatory tetrapodomorphs known from many areas of the world from the Givetian through to the Pennsylvanian - they lived from around 377-310 million years ago. Rhizodonts lived in tropical rivers and freshwater lakes and were the dominant predators of their age. They reached huge sizes - the largest known species, Rhizodus hibberti from Europe and North America, was an estimated 7 meters in length, making them the largest freshwater fish known.

Rhizodontidae

ДиБгд · 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
RhizodontidaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 56 million years on record.

The record covers at least 372.15 Mya to 315.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 36 occurrencesDevonian — about 4 of 36 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 32 of 36 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 36 occurrences422–418 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences418–414 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences414–409 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences409–405 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences405–401 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences401–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–384 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences384–380 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380–376 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences376–372 Mya — about 1 occurrence372–368 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences368–363 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences363–359 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences359–355 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences355–351 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences351–347 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences347–343 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences343–338 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences338–334 Mya — about 1 occurrence334–330 Mya — about 1 occurrence330–326 Mya — about 2 occurrences326–322 Mya — about 4 occurrences322–317 Mya — about 4 occurrences317–313 Mya — about 5 occurrences313–309 Mya — about 6 occurrences309–305 Mya — about 3 occurrences305–301 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences301–296 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences372.15 Mya315.2 Mya422 Mya296 Mya

36 occurrences of Rhizodontidae on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

36 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

12 formations

Pennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.53°N, 2.51°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.13°N, 3.09°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.11°N, 3.03°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.17°N, 1.87°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.00°N, 2.00°WGilmerton Ironstone — 55.83°N, 3.13°WHeath — 46.95°N, 108.90°WHeath — 46.95°N, 108.96°WBluefield — 39.57°N, 79.85°WCatskill — 41.36°N, 77.10°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°WMandagery Sandstone — 33.59°S, 148.55°EBallagan — 55.84°N, 2.07°WGullane — 55.98°N, 3.21°WSteshev — 54.89°N, 37.45°EOld Red Sandstone — 51.50°N, 2.78°W

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The named rock units Rhizodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhizodontidae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Rhizodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

212 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Rhizodontidae, 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

19 references

Each of the 36 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. 7 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 Rhizodontidae

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

No 3D scan of Rhizodontidae 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 itRhizodontida through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Traquair 1881