Trichiuridae

The cutlassfishes are about 45 species of predatory ray-finned fish in the family Trichiuridae of the order Scombriformes found in seas throughout the world. Fish of this family are long, slender, and generally steely blue or silver in colour, giving rise to their name. They have reduced or absent pelvic and caudal fins, giving them an eel-like appearance, and large fang-like teeth.

Trichiuridae

G.M. · 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
ScombriformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 197 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 197 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 197 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 197 occurrencesEocene — about 84 of 197 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 27 of 197 occurrencesMiocene — about 58 of 197 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 197 occurrencesPleistocene — about 15 of 197 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 10 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 16 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 24 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 21 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 14 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 17 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 9 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 11 occurrences15–9.7 Mya — about 14 occurrences9.7–4.9 Mya — about 30 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences59.24 Mya129 ka146 Mya0 Mya

197 occurrences of Trichiuridae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

197 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

54 formations

Selsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WTallahatta — 31.20°N, 85.48°WTallahatta — 31.38°N, 86.67°WTallahatta — 31.57°N, 88.34°WTallahatta — 31.79°N, 88.32°WTallahatta — 31.37°N, 86.52°WLondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.27°ELondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.08°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 88.50°WGosport Sand — 31.59°N, 88.02°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WYazoo — 31.66°N, 92.90°WYazoo — 31.82°N, 92.33°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WMenilite — 49.49°N, 17.79°EMenilite — 49.20°N, 17.20°EMenilite — 49.41°N, 17.75°EAalter — 50.79°N, 2.78°EAalter — 51.09°N, 3.45°EStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.98°EGosport — 31.50°N, 87.90°WSamlat — 23.36°N, 16.03°WPshekha Horizon — 44.74°N, 39.81°EChiusole — 45.54°N, 10.85°EMakrilia — 35.04°N, 25.76°EStone City — 30.67°N, 96.56°WBissex Hill — 13.22°N, 59.55°WScotland — 13.23°N, 59.55°WAshley — 32.95°N, 80.18°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WNavidad — 33.89°S, 71.83°WNavidad — 33.94°S, 71.85°WHeers — 50.10°N, 5.00°ESkawina — 50.28°N, 18.75°EŻelebsko — 50.32°N, 23.25°EŻelebsko — 50.85°N, 22.14°EGatun — 9.35°N, 79.80°W

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The named rock units Trichiuridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 88 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Trichiuridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Trichiuridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,626 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 148 sites for Trichiuridae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

104 references

Each of the 197 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. 92 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 Trichiuridae

Credit
G.M.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Trichiuridae 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 itScombriformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1810