Cardipeltis

Cardipeltis is an extinct genus of heterostracan jawless-fish from the early Devonian of Utah and Wyoming. Material of the fish has come from the Beartooth Butte Formation and Water Canyon Formation. Compared to other members of Heterostraci, Cardipeltis was strange. While having a dorsal shield similar to what is seen in more well known groups such as pteraspids, the ventral shield is made up of a large number of small polygonal plates more similar to what is seen in "Tessellate heterostracans". Along with this, unlike other members of the subclass, the brachial openings of the fish were located on the dorsal surface rather than on the sides. Due to this strange anatomy, the exact placement of Cardipeltis within Heterostraci has been disputed. Depending on the author, it was suggested to be closely related to Pteraspidiformes, Psammosteidae, Cyathaspididae, or "Tessellate heterostracans". More recent studies suggest that Cardipeltis is closely related to "Tessellate heterostracans". The environments that the fish is presented in represent brackish to freshwater environments, mainly bays and deltas.

Cardipeltis

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
CardipeltidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 413.02 Mya to 410.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 393.47 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 5 occurrencesDevonian — about 5 of 5 occurrencesDevonian420–419 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences419–418 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences418–417 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences417–417 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences417–416 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences414–413 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences413–412 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences412–411 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences410–409 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences409–408 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences408–407 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences407–407 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences407–406 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences406–405 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences405–404 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences404–403 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences403–402 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences402–401 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences401–400 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences400–399 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences399–398 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences398–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences396–395 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences395–394 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413.02 Mya – 410.62 Mya420.1 Mya392.9 Mya

5 occurrences of Cardipeltis on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

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

Beartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°W

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

Cardipeltis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cardipeltis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

64 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Cardipeltis, 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

2 references

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 Cardipeltis

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cardipeltis 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 itCardipeltidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Branson and Mehl 1931