Drepanopterus

Drepanopterus is an extinct genus of eurypterid and the only member of the family Drepanopteridae within the Mycteropoidea superfamily. There are currently three species assigned to the genus. The genus has historically included more species, with nine species having been associated with the genus Drepanopterus. Five of these have since been proven to be synonyms of pre-existing species, assigned to their own genera, or found to be based on insubstantial fossil data. The holotype of one species proved to be a lithic clast.

Drepanopterus

Qohelet12 · 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
DrepanopteridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At least 60 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 8 occurrencesSilurian — about 4 of 8 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 4 of 8 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 8 occurrences445–442 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences442–439 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences439–436 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences436–433 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences433–430 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences427–424 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences424–421 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences421–419 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences413–410 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences410–407 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences407–404 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences404–401 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences401–398 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences398–395 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences395–392 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences375–372 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences372–369 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences369–366 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences366–363 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences363–360 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences360–357 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432.9 Mya372.15 Mya445 Mya357 Mya

8 occurrences of Drepanopterus on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

8 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

Reservoir — 56.00°N, 3.00°WReservoir — 55.81°N, 3.35°WBear Rock — 68.18°N, 125.84°WKokomo — 40.48°N, 86.13°WWills Creek — 38.95°N, 79.00°WOld Red Sandstone — 51.50°N, 2.78°W

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The named rock units Drepanopterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Drepanopterus and its relatives

Silurian

Where Drepanopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

93 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Drepanopterus, 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

7 references

Each of the 8 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 Drepanopterus

Credit
Qohelet12
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Drepanopterus 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 itDrepanopteridae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Laurie 1892