Archeognathus

Archeognathus is a fossilized jaw apparatus of a large predatory conodont from the Ordovician period. Its large size has made classification difficult, and it has historically been compared to conodonts and gnathostomes since its remains were first discovered in Missouri. Complete articulated jaw apparatus of Archeognathus primus are common in the Winneshiek Shale lagerstätte of Iowa, allowing its identity as a conodont to be secured.

Archeognathus

Derek E.G. Briggs; Huaibao P. Liu; Robert M. McKay; Brian J. Witzke · CC BY 3.0 · 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
ColeodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Conodonta
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Conodonta
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Conodonta
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Conodonta

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 471.3 Mya to 457.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 483.4 Mya to 451 Mya.

Ordovician — about 4 of 4 occurrencesOrdovician484–483 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences482–481 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences481–480 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences480–478 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences478–477 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences475–474 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences471.3 Mya457.3 Mya484 Mya450.4 Mya

4 occurrences of Archeognathus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

4 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

Dutchtown — 37.25°N, 89.64°WDutchtown — 37.22°N, 89.53°WWinnipeg — 44.35°N, 106.85°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Archeognathus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Archeognathus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Archeognathus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 4 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. 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 Archeognathus

Credit
Derek E.G. Briggs; Huaibao P. Liu; Robert M. McKay; Brian J. Witzke
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Archeognathus 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.

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 itColeodontidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cullison 1938