Canadaspis perfecta

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
- CanadaspisPBDB
- Diet
- detritivorePBDB, for Canadaspis
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Canadaspis
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Canadaspis
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Canadaspis
Time the record covers
At most 13 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 509.7 Mya and 497 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
27 occurrences of Canadaspis perfecta 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
27 occurrences- Cambrian100%
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
4 formations
- Burgess Shale Formation · Chancellor Group24
- Lead Bell Shale Formation1
- Wheeler Formation1
- Pioche Shale Formation1
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The named rock units Canadaspis perfecta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Canadaspis perfecta and its relatives
CambrianWhere Canadaspis perfecta and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
159 taxa- Selkirkia columbia24 sites
- Wiwaxia corrugata24 sites
- Diraphora23 sites
- Ehmaniella burgessensis23 sites
- Hazelia23 sites
- Liangshanella23 sites
- Marrella splendens23 sites
- Pentagnostus praecurrens22 sites
- Yohoia22 sites
- Burgessia21 sites
- Haplophrentis carinatus21 sites
- Morania21 sites
- Ottoia prolifica21 sites
- Scenella amii21 sites
- Waptia fieldensis21 sites
- Sidneyia20 sites
- Laggania19 sites
- Micromitra19 sites
- Naraoia compacta19 sites
- Pollingeria grandis19 sites
- Lingulella18 sites
- Trilobita18 sites
- Hurdia17 sites
- Molaria17 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Canadaspis perfecta, 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
5 references- Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale23
- Paleocommunity analysis of the Burgess Shale Tulip Beds, Mount Stephen, British Columbia: Comparison with the Walcott Quarry and implications for community variation in the Burgess Shale1
- Middle Cambrian arthropods from Utah1
- Oryctocephalids (Corynexochida: Trilobita) of the Lower-Middle Cambrian boundary interval from California and Nevada1
- Exceptionally preserved nontrilobite arthropods and Anomalocaris from the Middle Cambrian of Utah1
Each of the 27 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 Canadaspis perfecta
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Canadaspis perfecta was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itCanadaspis through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Walcott 1912)