Carolinites

Carolinites is a genus of telephinid trilobite from the Lower and Middle Ordovician. Carolinites had a pantropical distribution, and there is evidence that it lived in upper parts of the water column. Thanks to its free-swimming lifestyle, Carolinites was one of the most widely-distributed trilobites, similar in habits to modern hyperiid amphipods. Due to its large eyes, Carolinites was not very streamlined, so it was probably a relatively slow head-first swimmer which relied on enrollment for defense.

Carolinites

NGPezz · CC BY 4.0 · 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
TelephinidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Telephinidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 9.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 468 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 488.9 Mya to 457.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 145 occurrencesOrdovician — about 145 of 145 occurrencesOrdovician490–488 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences488–487 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences487–486 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences486–485 Mya — about 1 occurrence485–484 Mya — about 1 occurrence484–483 Mya — about 1 occurrence483–482 Mya — about 1 occurrence482–481 Mya — about 2 occurrences481–480 Mya — about 2 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 2 occurrences479–477 Mya — about 2 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 6 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 8 occurrences475–474 Mya — about 14 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 15 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 15 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 17 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 15 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 8 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 6 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 3 occurrences467–465 Mya — about 3 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 3 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 3 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 3 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 3 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 3 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 3 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 2 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences477.1 Mya468 Mya489.5 Mya456.7 Mya

145 occurrences of Carolinites 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

145 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

46 formations

Antelope Valley — 39.09°N, 116.85°WAntelope Valley — 36.88°N, 116.65°WAntelope Valley — 39.00°N, 116.62°WAntelope Valley — 37.12°N, 116.50°WAntelope Valley — 36.39°N, 116.61°WValhallfonna — 79.00°N, 18.00°EValhallfonna — 79.80°N, 17.76°EDawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 30.00°N, 116.00°EDawan — 30.90°N, 111.39°EDawan — 30.86°N, 110.37°EFillmore Limestone — 38.92°N, 113.36°WFillmore Limestone — 38.84°N, 113.46°WWah Wah — 38.85°N, 113.46°WOutram — 52.88°N, 118.08°WWahwah — 39.18°N, 113.50°WWahwah — 40.87°N, 113.93°WWahwah — 38.85°N, 113.46°WWahwah — 38.86°N, 113.46°WNora — 23.05°S, 139.23°ENora — 23.26°S, 138.61°ENora — 22.86°S, 137.81°ENora — 23.49°S, 138.76°ENinemile — 37.00°N, 116.00°WNinemile — 36.39°N, 116.61°WNinemile — 37.34°N, 115.38°WCatoche — 50.73°N, 57.36°WCatoche — 51.63°N, 55.90°WVoskresenka — 51.17°N, 82.05°EVoskresenka — 51.62°N, 82.62°EGarden City — 40.16°N, 110.40°WGarden City — 41.92°N, 112.15°WGarden City — 41.52°N, 111.94°WSuri — 29.00°S, 68.00°WSuri — 28.00°S, 68.00°WFillmore — 38.85°N, 113.46°WFillmore — 38.88°N, 113.34°WFillmore — 39.84°N, 113.46°WSiliangssu — 32.90°N, 106.27°ESiliangssu — 33.06°N, 106.63°EBroken Skull — 64.67°N, 132.00°WBroken Skull — 62.25°N, 126.50°WXiaotan — 32.00°N, 118.00°EAcoite — 24.00°S, 66.00°WAcoite — 22.00°S, 66.00°WCaroline Creek — 41.25°S, 146.43°ETable Cove — 50.36°N, 57.54°WTable Cove — 48.58°N, 58.70°WDawangou — 40.64°N, 79.50°EKirtonryggen — 79.85°N, 17.67°ELos Azules — 30.58°S, 68.85°WKarasa — 52.02°N, 87.12°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Carolinites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Carolinites and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Carolinites and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

818 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 140 sites for Carolinites, 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

56 references

Each of the 145 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. 44 further references are not listed. 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 Carolinites

Credit
NGPezz
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

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 itTelephinidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kobayashi 1940