Amplexus

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
- AmplexidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Rugosa
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Rugosa
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Rugosa
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Rugosa
Time the record covers
At least 173 million years on record.
The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 259.857 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 449.5 Mya to 251.902 Mya.
144 occurrences of Amplexus 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
144 occurrences- Ordovicianunder 1%
- Silurian11%
- Devonian8%
- Carboniferous65%
- Permian16%
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
55 formations
- Edwardsville Formation10
- Read Bay Formation9
- Fort Payne Chert Formation7
- Black Rock Formation7
- Tin Mountain Formation7
- Feltrim Formation6
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The named rock units Amplexus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Amplexus and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Amplexus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
1,450 taxa- Fenestella34 sites
- Spirifer26 sites
- Crinoidea25 sites
- Cleiothyridina24 sites
- Dielasma22 sites
- Bryozoa20 sites
- Chonetes20 sites
- Syringopora20 sites
- Cyathaxonia19 sites
- Michelinia19 sites
- Platyceras19 sites
- Punctospirifer19 sites
- Platycrinites18 sites
- Favosites17 sites
- Penniretepora16 sites
- Rhipidomella16 sites
- Thamniscus16 sites
- Cyathocrinites15 sites
- Zaphrenthis15 sites
- Amplexizaphrentis14 sites
- Barycrinus14 sites
- Brachythyris14 sites
- Cystodictya14 sites
- Fistulipora14 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 125 sites for Amplexus, 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
70 references- Cornwallis and Little Cornwallis Islands, District of Franklin, Northwest Territories11
- Geology of the Country around Wells and Cheddar (Explanation of One-inch Geological Sheet 280, New Series)10
- Paleoecology and Paleocommunity Analysis of Green Shale Faunas from the Fort Payne Formation (Lower Mississippian) of South-central Kentucky and North-central Tennessee7
- Community Organization, Paleontology, and Sedimentology of the Lower Mississippian Borden Delta Platform (Edwardsville Formation, Southern Indiana)7
- New Mississippian Formations and Faunal Zones in Chesterfield Range, Portneuf Quadrangle Southeast Idaho6
- Fossil communities of the Borden (Mississippi) delta in Indiana and northern Kentucky5
- A detailed account of the fauna and age of a Waulsortian Reef Knoll Limestone and associated shales, Feltrim, Co., Dublin5
- Geology of the eastern part of the Alaska Range and adjacent area5
- The stratigraphy of the Carboniferous rocks of the Weaver Hills District, North Staffordshire4
- Mississippian coral assemblages from Tabainout mud-mound complex, Khenifra area, central Morocco3
- Silurian, Devonian, and Mississippian Formations of the Funeral Mountains in the Ryan Quadrangle, Death Valley Region, California3
- Mississippian and Devonian paleontology and stratigraphy, Quartz Spring area Inyo County, California3
Each of the 144 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. 58 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 Amplexus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAmplexidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sowerby 1814