Coccosteus cuspidatus

Coccosteus is an extinct genus of arthrodire placoderm from the Devonian period. Its fossils have been found throughout Europe and North America. The majority of these have been found in freshwater sediments, though such a large range suggests that they may have been able to enter saltwater. It was a small placoderm, with Coccosteus cuspidatus measuring 29.6–39.4 cm (11.7–15.5 in) long.

Coccosteus cuspidatus

Morosaurus millenii · CC BY-SA 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
CoccosteusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Arthrodira
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Arthrodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthrodira

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 393.47 Mya and 387.95 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Devonian — about 11 of 11 occurrencesDevonian394–393 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences393–393 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–391 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–390 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–389 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences388–388 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences394 Mya387.4 Mya

11 occurrences of Coccosteus cuspidatus 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

11 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

5 formations

Lybster Flagstone — 58.47°N, 3.46°WLybster Flagstone — 57.83°N, 4.18°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 2.34°WLybster Flagstone — 57.64°N, 3.03°WLybster Flagstone — 57.68°N, 4.03°WNarva — 57.55°N, 25.29°EMelby — 60.29°N, 1.70°WNarva — 59.38°N, 28.19°EUpper Stromness Flagstones — 59.08°N, 3.32°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Coccosteus cuspidatus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Coccosteus cuspidatus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

50 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Coccosteus cuspidatus, 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

4 references

Each of the 11 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 Coccosteus cuspidatus

Credit
Morosaurus millenii
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coccosteus cuspidatus 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 itCoccosteus through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1841