Ctenocephalus

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
- ConocoryphidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Conocoryphidae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At most 12 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 508.2 Mya and 497 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
15 occurrences of Ctenocephalus 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
15 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
7 formations
- Chamberlain's Brook Formation4
- Jince Formation4
- Buchava Formation3
- Skryje Formation1
- Skryje Shale Formation1
- Ferrals Formation1
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The named rock units Ctenocephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Ctenocephalus and its relatives
CambrianWhere Ctenocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
102 taxa- Ellipsocephalus6 sites
- Hydrocephalus carens6 sites
- Lobocephalina emmrichi6 sites
- Paradoxides (Eccaparadoxides) pusillus6 sites
- Agraulos ceticephalus5 sites
- Ceratocystis perneri5 sites
- Conocoryphe5 sites
- Phalagnostus5 sites
- Solenopleurina tyrovicensis5 sites
- Bohemiella romingeri4 sites
- Conocoryphe sulzeri4 sites
- Parabailiela granulata4 sites
- Paradoxides (Eccaparadoxides)4 sites
- Peronopsis4 sites
- Phalacroma4 sites
- Ptychoparia striata4 sites
- Sao4 sites
- Skreiaspis spinosus4 sites
- Trochocystites bohemicus4 sites
- Acrothele3 sites
- Diplorrhina3 sites
- Eccaparadoxides eteminicus3 sites
- Jincella prantli3 sites
- Luhops expectans3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Ctenocephalus, 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
11 references- Middle Cambrian (Acadian series) conocoryphid and paradoxidid trilobites from the upper Chamberlain's Brook Formation, Newfoundland and New Brunswick4
- Trilobiti Ceskeho stredniho Kambria [Middle Cambrian trilobites of Bohemia]2
- Family Dibrachicystidae (Echinodermata: Rhombifera) from the “Middle” Cambrian of the Barrandian area, Czech Republic1
- Middle Cambrian gogiid echinoderms from Northeast Spain: Taxonomy, palaeoecology, and palaeogeographic implications1
- Hyoliths with entombed trilobites cryptic behavior of trilobites1
- Association of fossils and history of research at the Týřovice - “Pod hruškou” locality (Middle Cambrian, Skrje-Týřovice Basin, Barrandian area)1
- Asturicystis havliceki sp. nov. (Echinodermata, Homostelea) from the Middle Cambrian of Bohemia (Barrandian area, Czech Republic)1
- Révision biostratigraphique du Cambrien moyen du versant méridional de la Montagne Noire (Languedoc, France)1
- Research of the classical paleontological locality “Luh” in the Cambrian of Skryje1
- Chlupáč et al., 19981
- Le genre Ceratocystis Jaekel (Echinodermata, Stylophora)1
Each of the 15 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 Ctenocephalus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itConocoryphidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hawle and Corda 1847