Eiffelia

Eiffelia is an extinct genus of sponges known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale as well as several Early Cambrian small shelly fossil deposits. It is named after Eiffel Peak, which was itself named after the Eiffel Tower. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott. It belongs in the Hexactinellid stem group. 60 specimens of Eiffelia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.11% of the community.

Eiffelia

Department of Paleobiology · 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
EiffeliidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Heteractinida
Environment
marinePBDB, for Heteractinida

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 497 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 525.5 Mya to 486.85 Mya.

Cambrian — about 95 of 95 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 95 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 1 occurrence521–520 Mya — about 14 occurrences520–518 Mya — about 14 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 14 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 12 occurrences516–514 Mya — about 7 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 7 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 4 occurrences512–510 Mya — about 1 occurrence510–509 Mya — about 3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 4 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 4 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 3 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences497–495 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences495–494 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences494–493 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences493–491 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences491–490 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences490–489 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences489–487 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences487–486 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516 Mya497 Mya526.3 Mya486.1 Mya

95 occurrences of Eiffelia 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

95 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

20 formations

Shabakty — 43.47°N, 69.87°EShabakty — 43.62°N, 69.73°EShabakty — 43.60°N, 69.33°EShabakty — 43.47°N, 69.97°EShabakty — 43.68°N, 69.68°EShabakty — 43.60°N, 69.45°EBeshtash — 42.17°N, 72.00°EBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WParara — 34.70°S, 137.71°EParara — 34.06°S, 138.02°EParara — 34.73°S, 137.63°EParara — 34.80°S, 137.69°EAjax Limestone — 30.59°S, 138.33°EParara Limestone — 34.92°S, 137.80°EXinji — 33.27°N, 112.98°EXinji — 34.90°N, 106.85°EKulpara Limestone — 34.92°S, 137.80°EKulpara — 34.70°S, 137.71°EKulpara — 34.73°S, 137.63°ELáncara — 42.90°N, 5.17°WStephen — 51.40°N, 116.48°WNandoumari — 12.35°N, 12.38°WBastion — 74.10°N, 23.00°WLower Comley — 52.56°N, 2.76°WCal Tepe — 37.42°N, 31.85°ETodd River Dolomite — 23.90°S, 134.33°EMila — 36.02°N, 50.75°ECampo Pisano — 39.40°N, 8.52°EBurj — 30.92°N, 35.52°EAftenstjernesø — 81.57°N, 42.92°W

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The named rock units Eiffelia 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.

Eiffelia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Eiffelia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

462 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 67 sites for Eiffelia, 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

20 references

Each of the 95 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. 8 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 Eiffelia

Credit
Department of Paleobiology
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eiffelia 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 itEiffeliidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1920