Ariaspis
Ariaspis is an extinct genus of cyathaspidiform heterostracan agnathan. Fossils are found in marine strata of Canada and Europe from the late Silurian period until its extinction during the Early Devonian. A new species, A. arctata, was described by David K. Elliott and Sandra Swift in 2010.

Canadian Museum of Nature · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- AriaspididaePBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata
Time the record covers
At least 4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 426.7 Mya to 422.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 419.62 Mya.
5 occurrences of Ariaspis on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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
5 occurrences- Silurian100%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Ariaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ariaspis and its relatives
SilurianWhere Ariaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.
Found in the same rock
69 taxa- Aegiria1 site
- Alainaspis platyrhina1 site
- Antirhynchonella1 site
- Bivalvia1 site
- Boothiaspis alata1 site
- Boothiaspis ovata1 site
- Ceratocephala1 site
- Colonograptus ludensis1 site
- Conchidium1 site
- Corvaspis1 site
- Cybantyx1 site
- Cyrtograptus cf. muchisoni bohemicus1 site
- Deiphon1 site
- Dicoelosia1 site
- Dicranogmus skinneri1 site
- Dicranopeltis1 site
- Didrepanon1 site
- Dikenaspis yukonensis1 site
- Dolerorthis1 site
- Dudleyaspis1 site
- Fragiscutum1 site
- Gracianella1 site
- Gypidula1 site
- Harpidella1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Ariaspis, 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
4 references- A Bohemian-type Silurian (Wenlock) pelecypod faunule from arctic Canada2
- A new species of Ariaspis (Agnatha, Heterostraci) from the Late Silurian of the Canadian Arctic1
- A New Heterostracan from the Upper Silurian of Northwest Territories, Canada1
- New Silurian Heterostraci from Southeastern Yukon1
Each of the 5 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 Ariaspis
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Canadian Museum of Nature
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Ariaspis”
- 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 itAriaspididae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Denison 1963