Aenigmacaris

Aenigmacaris is an extinct genus of malacostracan crustacean, which includes the species Aenigmacaris cornigerum and Aenigmacaris minima. Their closest extant relatives are the mantis shrimp.

Aenigmacaris

Oilshale · 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
AenigmacarididaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Malacostraca
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Malacostraca
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At most 3.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 307 Mya and 303.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 3 of 3 occurrencesCarboniferous307–307 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences306–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences305–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences307.5 Mya303.2 Mya

3 occurrences of Aenigmacaris 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

3 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

2 formations

Wild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WMadera — 35.00°N, 106.34°W

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

Aenigmacaris and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Aenigmacaris and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Aenigmacaris, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aenigmacaris

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

No 3D scan of Aenigmacaris 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 itAenigmacarididae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schram and Horner 1978