Anomalocaris pennsylvanica

Anomalocaris pennsylvanica

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
AnomalocarisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Anomalocaris
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Anomalocaris
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Anomalocaris

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 515.3 Mya and 509.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 3 of 3 occurrencesCambrian515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515.8 Mya509.2 Mya

3 occurrences of Anomalocaris pennsylvanica on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

1 formation

Kinzers — 40.04°N, 76.31°WKinzers — 40.07°N, 76.37°WKinzers — 40.09°N, 76.35°W

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

Anomalocaris pennsylvanica and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Anomalocaris pennsylvanica and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

44 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Anomalocaris pennsylvanica, 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

1 reference

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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Anomalocaris pennsylvanica

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anomalocaris pennsylvanica 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnomalocaris through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Resser 1929