Dinomischus

Dinomischus is an extinct genus of stalked filter-feeding animals within the Cambrian period, with specimens known from the Burgess Shale, the Maotianshan Shales, the Kaili Formation and the Marjum Formation. While long of uncertain affinities, recent studies have suggested it to be a stem-group ctenophore.

Dinomischus

Han Zeng · CC0 · 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
DinomischidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 9.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 506.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 10 of 10 occurrencesCambrian522–521 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences504–503 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences502–502 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences501–500 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences500–499 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences497–497 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516 Mya506.5 Mya521.5 Mya496.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Dinomischus 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

10 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

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.39°N, 116.43°WYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EShuijingtuo — 30.50°N, 111.16°EBalang — 28.42°N, 109.42°E

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

Dinomischus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Dinomischus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

322 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Dinomischus, 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

8 references

Each of the 10 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dinomischus

Credit
Han Zeng
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dinomischus 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 itDinomischidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conway Morris 1977