Sternoptychidae

The marine hatchetfishes or deep-sea hatchetfishes as well as the related bottlelights, pearlsides and constellationfishes are small deep-sea ray-finned fish of the stomiiform family Sternoptychidae. They are not closely related to and should not be confused with the freshwater hatchetfishes, which are teleosts in the characiform family Gasteropelecidae. The Sternoptychidae have 10 genera and about 70 species altogether.

Sternoptychidae

SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC · 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
GonostomatoideiPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonic, depth=deepPBDB
Motility
fast-movingPBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
oceanic,marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 10 of 155 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 16 of 155 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 85 of 155 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 21 of 155 occurrencesPleistocene — about 23 of 155 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 9 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 11 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 6 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 13 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 19 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 12 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 15 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences41.03 Mya129 ka49 Mya0 Mya

155 occurrences of Sternoptychidae 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

155 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

23 formations

Mount Harris — 44.48°S, 170.90°EMount Harris — 45.21°S, 170.88°EMount Harris — 45.15°S, 170.93°EMount Harris — 44.82°S, 170.88°ELindos Bay — 36.09°N, 28.01°ELindos Bay — 36.26°N, 28.17°ELindos Bay — 36.36°N, 28.21°EWaioha Shellbeds — 34.50°S, 172.96°EGutingkeng — 23.04°N, 120.43°EGutingkeng — 22.84°N, 120.41°EGutingkeng — 22.85°N, 120.43°ENavidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°WYokosuka — 35.26°N, 139.72°EMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WModelo — 34.13°N, 118.48°WModelo — 34.13°N, 118.42°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WMonterey — 33.71°N, 118.28°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WMakrilia — 35.04°N, 25.76°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.14°S, 170.93°EMarnes de Saint-Etienne-d’Orthe — 43.57°N, 1.10°WDabakhana Svita — 41.72°N, 44.83°EMaykop — 43.14°N, 46.84°ERaz-el-Ain — 35.71°N, 0.64°WPabdeh — 33.63°N, 46.44°EAbad — 37.09°N, 2.08°WWaititi — 35.54°S, 173.37°EPakaurangi — 36.24°S, 174.28°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.85°S, 170.52°EChagres Sandstone — 9.28°N, 80.05°WMiyata — 35.19°N, 39.65°E

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The named rock units Sternoptychidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 101 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sternoptychidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Sternoptychidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,426 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 109 sites for Sternoptychidae, 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

45 references

Each of the 155 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. 33 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 Sternoptychidae

Credit
SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sternoptychidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itGonostomatoidei through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gill 1863