Tristychius

Tristychius is an extinct genus of euselachian chondrichthyan from the Carboniferous period (Visean). Fossils of T. arcuatus, the type and only species, including fin spines have been found in Scotland.

Tristychius

Cameron Spahn · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
TristychiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 5.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 335.9 Mya to 330.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 346.7 Mya to 326.9 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 9 of 9 occurrencesCarboniferous347–347 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences347–346 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences346–345 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences345–344 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences344–344 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences344–343 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences343–342 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences342–342 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences342–341 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences341–340 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences340–340 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences340–339 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences339–338 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences338–337 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences337–337 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences337–336 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences336–335 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences335–335 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences335–334 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences334–333 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences333–333 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences333–332 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences331–331 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences330–329 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences329–328 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences328–328 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences328–327 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences327–326 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335.9 Mya330.3 Mya347.2 Mya326.4 Mya

9 occurrences of Tristychius on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

9 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

6 formations

Gullane — 55.98°N, 3.21°WGullane — 55.97°N, 3.25°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.91°N, 3.48°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.80°N, 3.57°WEast Kirkton Limestone — 55.95°N, 3.20°WManse Burn — 55.92°N, 4.33°WWardie Shale — 55.00°N, 3.00°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.88°N, 3.52°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tristychius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Tristychius and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Tristychius and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

44 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Tristychius, 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

4 references

Each of the 9 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Tristychius

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

No 3D scan of Tristychius was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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

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 itTristychiidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1837