Torpedinidae

Searched as Torpedo. The Paleobiology Database treats Torpedinidae as the accepted name.

Torpedo is a genus of rays, commonly known as electric rays, torpedo rays, or torpedoes. They are slow-moving bottom-dwellers capable of generating electricity as a defense and feeding mechanism.

Torpedinidae

Roberto Pillon · CC BY 3.0 · 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
torpedoPBDB
Sits inside
TorpediniformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 54 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 47 occurrencesPaleocene — about 13 of 47 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 29 of 47 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 47 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 47 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 47 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 5 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 3 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 3 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–8.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.3–6.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.2–4.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence61.66 Mya7.246 Mya67 Mya4 Mya

47 occurrences of Torpedinidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

47 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

19 formations

Marnes de Donzacq — 43.75°N, 0.84°WMarnes de Miretrain — 43.69°N, 1.13°WLandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°EUmm Himar — 21.17°N, 41.42°EBirket Qarun — 29.28°N, 30.04°EEsbarrondadoiro — 38.17°N, 8.17°WEsbarrondadoiro — 38.11°N, 8.36°WTuscahoma — 32.35°N, 88.68°WBashi — 32.35°N, 88.68°WWadi Esh-Shallala — 31.57°N, 37.12°ESantee Limestone — 33.35°N, 80.25°WQasr el-Sagha — 29.29°N, 29.99°EBreda — 51.47°N, 5.80°ETeberemt — 16.67°N, 0.50°EFishburne — 33.28°N, 79.64°WKuma — 45.10°N, 34.63°EMiretrain Marl — 43.57°N, 1.11°WGaindorf — 48.49°N, 15.72°ESternberg — 53.67°N, 11.82°EMons-en-Pévèle Sand — 50.81°N, 4.33°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Torpedinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Torpedinidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Torpedinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

732 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Torpedinidae, 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

23 references

Each of the 47 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. 11 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 content2

Picture of Torpedinidae

Credit
Roberto Pillon
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
UmangRank
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itTorpediniformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.