Uranoscopidae

The stargazers are a family, Uranoscopidae, of perciform ray-finned fish that have eyes on top of their heads. The family includes about 51 species in eight genera, all marine and found worldwide in shallow and deep saltwaters.

Uranoscopidae

Edgar Ravenswood Waite · 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
UranoscopiformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 10 of 27 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 27 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 27 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 27 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 27 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.5–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences41.03 Mya129 ka49 Mya0 Mya

27 occurrences of Uranoscopidae 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

27 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

18 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WMount Harris — 44.49°S, 171.01°EMount Harris — 45.03°S, 171.02°EYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WKempsville — 36.79°N, 76.17°WSt. Marys — 38.32°N, 76.43°WHarudi — 23.52°N, 68.68°ENanggulan — 7.73°S, 110.18°EChatton — 46.11°S, 168.80°EDouble Corner Shellbed — 43.11°S, 172.78°ESouthburn Sand — 44.37°S, 170.91°ERifle Butts Siltstone — 45.06°S, 170.95°EMarna di Possagno — 46.16°N, 13.37°EHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°ELiuchungchi — 23.44°N, 120.59°ETapu — 24.96°N, 121.38°ECook Mountain — 32.03°N, 88.70°W“upper” Lisbon — 31.82°N, 88.24°WPiney Point — 37.61°N, 76.76°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Uranoscopidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Uranoscopidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Uranoscopidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,019 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Uranoscopidae, 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

14 references

Each of the 27 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. 2 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 Uranoscopidae

Credit
Edgar Ravenswood Waite
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Uranoscopidae 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 itUranoscopiformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.