Siluriformes

Catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish of the order Siluriformes. Catfish are named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not all catfish have prominent barbels. All Siluriformes lack scales, instead possessing either smooth skin or armour-plated bodies. This order of fish are defined by features of the skull and swimbladder. Catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia, the wels catfish of Eurasia, and the piraíba of South America, to detritivorous and scavenging bottom feeders, down to the tiny ectoparasitic species known as the candiru.

Siluriformes

authors of the images used: HalbsHännile Thomsonmg2000 Guillermo Enrique Terán, Juliano Ferrer, Mauricio Benitez, Fel… · 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
Also called
catfishPBDB
Sits inside
OtophysaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 140 million years on record.

The record covers at least 141 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 145.06 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 808 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 808 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 42 of 808 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 18 of 808 occurrencesEocene — about 119 of 808 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 20 of 808 occurrencesMiocene — about 274 of 808 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 110 of 808 occurrencesPleistocene — about 191 of 808 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 2 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 1 occurrence104–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–94 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences94–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–69 Mya — about 20 occurrences69–64 Mya — about 20 occurrences64–59 Mya — about 11 occurrences59–54 Mya — about 9 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 12 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 29 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 42 occurrences39–35 Mya — about 30 occurrences35–30 Mya — about 10 occurrences30–25 Mya — about 9 occurrences25–20 Mya — about 21 occurrences20–15 Mya — about 52 occurrences15–9.9 Mya — about 107 occurrences9.9–4.9 Mya — about 111 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 318 occurrences141 Mya11.7 ka148 Mya0 Mya

808 occurrences of Siluriformes on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

808 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

181 formations

Koobi Fora — 4.26°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 4.29°N, 36.23°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.44°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.89°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 3.70°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.09°N, 36.31°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 4.27°N, 35.82°EPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WOlduvai — 2.97°S, 35.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.28°WUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.22°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.24°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.15°WAmeki — 5.00°N, 7.50°EAmeki — 5.56°N, 7.52°EFox Hills — 46.47°N, 99.58°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.42°WFox Hills — 46.26°N, 100.55°WFox Hills — 46.28°N, 100.52°WFox Hills — 46.33°N, 100.32°WFox Hills — 46.38°N, 100.32°WGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EWembere-Manonga — 3.87°S, 33.72°EWembere-Manonga — 3.90°S, 33.82°EWembere-Manonga — 3.92°S, 33.88°EWembere-Manonga — 4.03°S, 33.78°EWembere-Manonga — 3.88°S, 33.97°EWembere-Manonga — 3.98°S, 33.93°ESolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WSolimoes — 8.93°S, 72.80°WSolimoes — 8.80°S, 68.75°WSolimoes — 9.02°S, 68.81°WSeria — 4.82°N, 114.72°ESeria — 4.67°N, 114.64°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.79°N, 100.07°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WPozo — 7.35°S, 74.95°WPozo — 6.58°S, 76.28°WNyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°EHarudi — 23.51°N, 68.69°EHarudi — 23.65°N, 68.68°EHarudi — 23.65°N, 68.66°ESan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°WGabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°ENyabusosi — 1.00°N, 30.50°EKakara — 1.00°N, 30.50°EBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°W

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The named rock units Siluriformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 157 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 174 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Siluriformes and its relatives

Miocene

Where Siluriformes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,070 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 537 sites for Siluriformes, 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

308 references

Each of the 808 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. 296 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 Siluriformes

Credit
authors of the images used: HalbsHännile Thomsonmg2000 Guillermo Enrique Terán, Juliano Ferrer, Mauricio Benitez, Fel…
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Siluriformes indet. · Vouchered object contributed by MorphoVert Lab

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itOtophysa through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.