Asaphus expansus

Asaphus expansus is the type species of the asaphid trilobite genus Asaphus. It was previously classified as Entomostracites expansus before being split off into its own genus.

Asaphus expansus

Tomleetaiwan · Public Domain · 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
AsaphusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asaphida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Asaphida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Asaphidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 14 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 472.1 Mya and 458.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 22 of 22 occurrencesOrdovician472–472 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences471–471 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences470–470 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences469–469 Mya — about 2 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 2 occurrences468–468 Mya — about 2 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 2 occurrences467–467 Mya — about 2 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 2 occurrences466–466 Mya — about 2 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 2 occurrences465–465 Mya — about 2 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 1 occurrence464–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences461–461 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences460–460 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences459–459 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences472.6 Mya457.7 Mya

22 occurrences of Asaphus expansus 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

22 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

7 formations

Holen — 57.15°N, 16.92°EHolen — 57.00°N, 16.82°EHolen — 57.29°N, 16.96°ELynna — 59.42°N, 31.87°ELynna — 59.97°N, 32.57°EObukhovo — 60.00°N, 32.57°EKronauce — 56.51°N, 23.34°EVexin — 58.46°N, 42.51°EObukhovskaya — 58.13°N, 32.27°EShihtien — 24.77°N, 99.15°E

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The named rock units Asaphus expansus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Asaphus expansus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Asaphus expansus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

89 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Asaphus expansus, 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

8 references

Each of the 22 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 Asaphus expansus

Credit
Tomleetaiwan
Licence
Public Domain
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

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 itAsaphus through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wahlenberg 1821)