Essexella asherae

Essexella is an extinct genus of cnidarian known from Late Carboniferous fossils; it contains a single species, E. asherae. It is one of the most recurrent organisms in the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois; in the Essex biota of Mazon Creek, it consists of 42% of all fossil finds. Essexella was originally described as a jellyfish, but was recently redescribed as a sea anemone.

Essexella asherae

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
EssexellaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Actiniaria
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Actiniaria
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Actiniaria
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa

Time the record covers

At most 6.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 312.8 Mya and 306 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 4 of 4 occurrencesCarboniferous313–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313.3 Mya305.5 Mya

4 occurrences of Essexella asherae on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

4 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

2 formations

Carbondale — 40.26°N, 90.38°WCarbondale — 41.22°N, 88.22°WVerdigris — 38.30°N, 93.30°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Essexella asherae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Essexella asherae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Essexella asherae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 4 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 content2

Picture of Essexella asherae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Essexella asherae · TMNH:03799

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

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 itEssexella through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Foster 1979