Syacium
Syacium is a genus of large-tooth flounders found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With the exception of S. guineensis from the Atlantic coast of Africa, all species are from the Americas. The largest species in the genus reaches 40 cm (16 in) in length.

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
- CyclopsettidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Pleuronectiformes
Time the record covers
At least 27 million years on record.
The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.
7 occurrences of Syacium 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
7 occurrences- Oligocene29%
- Miocene43%
- Pliocene14%
- Pleistocene13%
- Holocene1%
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
5 formations
- Onzole Formation · Daule Group1
- Gatun Formation1
- Raz-el-Ain Formation1
- Catahoula Formation1
- Byram Formation1
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The named rock units Syacium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Syacium and its relatives
MioceneWhere Syacium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
211 taxa- Aetomylaeus2 sites
- Apogon2 sites
- Citharichthys2 sites
- Corvina gemma2 sites
- Diplodus2 sites
- Pachyscyllium2 sites
- Physogaleus2 sites
- Protanago nonsector2 sites
- Sciaena pseudoradians2 sites
- Sparus elegantulus2 sites
- Sphyraena2 sites
- Teleostei2 sites
- Acanthocybium1 site
- Achirus mediterraneus1 site
- Albula1 site
- Albulidae1 site
- Allomorone1 site
- Alopias1 site
- Alosa crassa1 site
- Alosa elongata1 site
- Alpheus1 site
- Ambassis1 site
- Anatipopecten anatipes1 site
- Anchoa1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Syacium, 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
7 references- Late Oligocene fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes) from the Catahoula Formation in Wayne County, Mississippi, USA1
- Marine fishes (Elasmobranchii, Teleostei) from the Glendon Limestone Member of the Byram Formation (Oligocene, Rupelian) at site AWa-9, Washington County, Alabama, USA, including a new species of gobiid (Gobiiformes: Gobiidae)1
- Taphonomic and paleoecological analyses (mollusks and fishes) of the Súa Member condensed shelled, upper Onzole Formation (Early Pliocene, Ecuador)1
- Lower Badenian fish otoliths of the Styrian and Lavanttal basins, with a revision of Weinfurter's type material1
- Bathymetric distribution of Miocene to Pleistocene Caribbean teleostean fishes from the coast of Panama and Costa Rica1
- Late Pleistocene-early Holocene teleostean otoliths from a Mississippi River mudlump1
- Messinian marine fish communities of the Mediterranean Sea1
Each of the 7 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 content2
Picture of Syacium
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC.
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Syacium micrurum · KU:KUI:30227
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Syacium”
- 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 itCyclopsettidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ranzani 1842