Tartuosteus

Tartuosteus is an extinct genus of jawless fish from the Devonian of Eastern Europe. It is notable for its large size in comparison to other Ostracoderms, reaching a width of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

Tartuosteus

Paul · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
PycnosteidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 5.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 387.95 Mya to 382.31 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 379 Mya.

Devonian — about 15 of 15 occurrencesDevonian394–393 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 1 occurrence388–387 Mya — about 2 occurrences387–387 Mya — about 2 occurrences387–386 Mya — about 2 occurrences386–386 Mya — about 2 occurrences386–385 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences385–385 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences384–384 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences384–383 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences383–383 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences383–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382–382 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences381–381 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences380–380 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences380–379 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences379–379 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences387.95 Mya382.31 Mya394 Mya378.5 Mya

15 occurrences of Tartuosteus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

8 formations

Aruküla — 57.55°N, 25.28°EAruküla — 59.37°N, 25.08°EVstrechnaya — 79.50°N, 96.00°EVatutin — 79.50°N, 96.00°EPärnu — 58.39°N, 24.50°ENarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EAdrov — 54.47°N, 30.39°EBurtnieki — 58.10°N, 25.55°E

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The named rock units Tartuosteus 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.

Tartuosteus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Tartuosteus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

95 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Tartuosteus, 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

5 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 Tartuosteus

Source
GBIF
Credit
Paul
Licence
CC BY-NC 4.0
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

No 3D scan of Tartuosteus 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 itPycnosteidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Obruchev 1961