Stratodus

Stratodus is a genus of giant prehistoric aulopiform fish found in Cretaceous-aged marine strata of Kansas, Alabama, Morocco, Israel, Niger, South Dakota, and Jordan. It has also been found in the Tamaguélelt Formation of Mali, dating to the Lower Eocene, indicating that Stratodus survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. This sleek fish has an upper jaw filled with multiple rows of tiny teeth and was the largest aulopiform, reaching 5 metres (16 ft) in length.

Stratodus

DiBgd · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikidata/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
DercetidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Aulopiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Aulopiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Aulopiformes

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 25 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 24 of 25 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 25 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 25 occurrencesEocene102–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 3 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93.9 Mya56 Mya102 Mya47 Mya

25 occurrences of Stratodus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

25 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

9 formations

Dukamaje — 15.37°N, 5.83°EDukamaje — 15.41°N, 5.73°EDukamaje — 15.47°N, 6.26°EMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMishash — 30.67°N, 35.08°EMishash — 30.62°N, 35.12°EPhosphorite Unit — 32.02°N, 36.03°EMuwaddar Chalk Marl — 31.56°N, 36.51°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°EDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WZig Zag Chalk — 50.86°N, 0.07°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Stratodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Stratodus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Stratodus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

271 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Stratodus, 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

14 references

Each of the 25 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. 2 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 Stratodus

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

No 3D scan of Stratodus 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 itDercetidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1872