Desmophyllum

Desmophyllum is a genus of cnidarians belonging to the family Caryophylliidae.

Desmophyllum

Cairns S, Kitahara M (2012) · CC BY 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
DesmophyllinaePBDB
Diet
microcarnivorePBDB, for Caryophylliidae
Life habit
low-level epifaunal, solitary, clonalPBDB, for Caryophylliidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Caryophylliidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 66 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 66 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 66 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 8 of 66 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 66 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 24 of 66 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 66 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 66 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 4 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 10 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka103 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Desmophyllum on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

66 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

8 formations

Termofourà — 45.07°N, 7.82°EGrand Bay — 12.50°N, 61.42°WBrèches rouges de Carboneras — 37.60°N, 1.32°WLa Tossa — 41.58°N, 1.67°EDakhla — 25.33°N, 30.58°EArcadia — 27.88°N, 82.48°WArdanatz Sandstone — 42.80°N, 1.55°WDanish White Chalk — 55.30°N, 12.45°E

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The named rock units Desmophyllum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Desmophyllum and its relatives

Miocene

Where Desmophyllum and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

544 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Desmophyllum, 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

26 references

Each of the 66 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. 14 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 Desmophyllum

Credit
Cairns S, Kitahara M (2012)
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Desmophyllum 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 itDesmophyllinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ehrenberg 1834