Seriphus politus

The queenfish is a species of fish in the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where it occurs along the North American coastline from Oregon to Baja California; it has been recorded as far north as British Columbia. Its centre of distribution is the Southern California Bight. It is also known commonly as the queen croaker. This is the only extant species in the monotypic genus Seriphus. A fossil relative, S. lavenbergi, is known from the Late Miocene-aged Puente Formation of the Los Angeles Basin.

Seriphus politus

Uncredited · 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
Also called
queenfishPBDB
Sits inside
SeriphusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Perciformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Perciformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Perciformes

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 2 of 15 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 15 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 15 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

15 occurrences of Seriphus politus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

15 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

4 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.29°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WNiguel — 33.64°N, 117.89°W

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The named rock units Seriphus politus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Seriphus politus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Seriphus politus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

831 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Seriphus politus, 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

9 references

Each of the 15 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 Seriphus politus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Seriphus politus 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 itSeriphus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ayres 1860