Eocystites
Eocystites is a poorly-known genus of Middle Cambrian echinoderm tentatively assigned to the Eocrinoidea. The type specides, E. primaevus, known only from isolated plates from the Acadian Group of rocks near St. John, New Brunswick, is the only valid species. Of the other two proposed species, E. longidactylus has subsequently been assigned to Gogia by way of its junior synonym Eocrinus, while E. languidocianus has been assigned to Vizcainoia as its type species.

Chapter "Eocrinoidea" authored by Georges Ubaghs; photography credit unknown. · CC BY 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
- AscocystitidaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Eocrinoidea
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Eocrinoidea
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Eocrinoidea
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Eocrinoidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Echinodermata
Time the record covers
At least 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 515.3 Mya to 497 Mya.
6 occurrences of Eocystites 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
6 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
4 formations
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The named rock units Eocystites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Eocystites and its relatives
CambrianWhere Eocystites and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
67 taxa- Ceratocystis2 sites
- Gogia2 sites
- Gyrocystis platessa2 sites
- Nisusia2 sites
- Paradoxides (Eccaparadoxides)2 sites
- Solenopleuropsis2 sites
- Solenopleuropsis (Manublesia) verdiagana2 sites
- ? Chancellorida indet.1 site
- Acadagnostus acadica1 site
- Acrothele1 site
- Anomalocaris1 site
- Asaphiscus1 site
- Bailiella heberti1 site
- Bailiella levyi1 site
- Bathynotus1 site
- Biconulites1 site
- Billingaspis sp.1 site
- Bohemiella1 site
- Bonnia1 site
- Brahimorthis alvaroi1 site
- Cambraster cannati1 site
- Condylopyge1 site
- Coreospira raymondi1 site
- Cothurnocystidae1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Eocystites, 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
6 references- The oldest isorophid edrioasteroid (Echinodermata) and the evolution of attachment strategies in Cambrian edrioasteroids1
- Equinodermos del Cámbrico medio de las Cadenas Ibéricas y de la zona Cantábrica (Norte de España)1
- Révision biostratigraphique du Cambrien moyen du versant méridional de la Montagne Noire (Languedoc, France)1
- Middle Cambrian "Archaeocyathus" from the Georgina Basin is an anthaspidellid sponge1
- Paleontology of Northwestern Vermont. VI. The early Middle Cambrian fauna1
- Paleontology of Northwestern Vermont. V. The Lower Cambrian Fauna1
Each of the 6 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 Eocystites
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Chapter "Eocrinoidea" authored by Georges Ubaghs; photography credit unknown.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Eocystites was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Eocystites”
- 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 itAscocystitida through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Billings 1868