Cephalaspidiformes

The class Osteostraci is an extinct taxon of bony-armored jawless fish, termed "ostracoderms", that lived in what is now North America, Europe and Russia from the Middle Silurian to Late Devonian.

Cephalaspidiformes

Stanton F. Fink · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
OsteostraciPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 56 million years on record.

The record covers at least 438.8 Mya to 382.31 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 440.8 Mya to 372.15 Mya.

Silurian — about 28 of 148 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 120 of 148 occurrencesDevonian442–440 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences440–437 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences437–435 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences435–433 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences433–430 Mya — about 2 occurrences430–428 Mya — about 4 occurrences428–426 Mya — about 6 occurrences426–423 Mya — about 1 occurrence423–421 Mya — about 7 occurrences421–418 Mya — about 23 occurrences418–416 Mya — about 33 occurrences416–414 Mya — about 29 occurrences414–411 Mya — about 16 occurrences411–409 Mya — about 5 occurrences409–406 Mya — about 2 occurrences406–404 Mya — about 2 occurrences404–402 Mya — about 2 occurrences402–399 Mya — about 2 occurrences399–397 Mya — about 2 occurrences397–395 Mya — about 2 occurrences395–392 Mya — about 1 occurrence392–390 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences390–387 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences387–385 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences383–380 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences380–378 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences378–376 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences376–373 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences373–371 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences438.8 Mya382.31 Mya442 Mya371 Mya

148 occurrences of Cephalaspidiformes 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

148 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

Dniester — 48.77°N, 25.61°EDniester — 49.01°N, 25.43°EDniester — 48.86°N, 25.48°EDniester — 48.91°N, 25.59°EDniester — 48.69°N, 25.62°EDniester — 48.80°N, 25.29°EBen Nevis — 79.63°N, 12.29°EFraenkelryggen — 79.67°N, 12.37°ESundvollen — 60.17°N, 10.30°ESundvollen — 59.92°N, 10.75°ESundvollen — 60.07°N, 10.30°ERoad River — 63.33°N, 126.81°WTyver — 49.16°N, 25.61°ETyver — 48.80°N, 25.74°ETyver — 48.64°N, 25.73°ETyver — 49.29°N, 25.64°EOld Red — 48.79°N, 25.58°EOld Red — 48.68°N, 25.59°EWood Bay — 79.24°N, 13.40°EWood Bay — 79.23°N, 13.83°EWood Bay — 79.39°N, 13.64°EPsammosteus Limestone — 52.53°N, 2.48°WFreshwater West — 52.48°N, 2.64°WFreshwater West — 51.83°N, 3.00°WIvanie — 49.05°N, 25.72°EIvanie — 48.72°N, 25.63°EKnoydart — 45.62°N, 61.97°WKnoydart — 45.72°N, 62.20°WDundee Flagstone — 57.00°N, 4.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.61°N, 3.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.67°N, 2.77°WPeel Sound — 73.25°N, 93.50°WPeel Sound — 73.79°N, 98.58°WPeel Sound — 73.78°N, 98.47°WEscuminac — 48.11°N, 66.40°WBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°WBeartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WFish Bed — 55.52°N, 3.98°WFish Bed — 55.54°N, 3.94°WLedbury — 51.95°N, 2.88°WHalla — 57.61°N, 18.80°EDelorme — 62.55°N, 127.75°WSt Maughans — 52.13°N, 2.43°WSenni Beds — 51.86°N, 2.97°WDownton — 52.21°N, 3.04°WIvane Suite — 48.62°N, 25.87°E

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The named rock units Cephalaspidiformes 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. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cephalaspidiformes and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cephalaspidiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

668 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Cephalaspidiformes, 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

43 references

Each of the 148 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. 31 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 Cephalaspidiformes

Credit
Stanton F. Fink
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cephalaspidiformes 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.

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 itOsteostraci through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Berg 1937