Fallotaspididae

The ”Fallotaspidoidea” are a superfamily of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods. It lived during the Lower Cambrian (Atdabanian) and species occurred on all paleocontinents except for the Gondwana heartland. A member of this group, Profallotaspis jakutensis, has long been the earliest known trilobite, but recently the redlichiid Lemdadella has been claimed as occurring even earlier.

Fallotaspididae

Sam Gon III · Attribution · 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
FallotaspidoideaPBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Redlichiida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Redlichiida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Redlichiida
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 5.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 521 Mya to 515.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 509.7 Mya.

Cambrian — about 60 of 60 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–530 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 8 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 11 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 11 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 11 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 11 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 3 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences521 Mya515.3 Mya539.4 Mya509.1 Mya

60 occurrences of Fallotaspididae 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

60 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

10 formations

Amouslek — 30.40°N, 8.83°WAmouslek — 30.38°N, 8.68°WAmouslek — 29.62°N, 9.47°WIdoudine — 30.40°N, 8.82°WCampito — 37.69°N, 117.73°WCampito — 37.35°N, 117.23°WPestrotsvet — 57.42°N, 132.55°EPestrotsvet — 60.82°N, 125.32°EPuerto Blanco — 30.42°N, 111.93°WPuerto Blanco — 30.42°N, 111.96°WSekwi — 63.52°N, 128.68°WTyuser — 71.58°N, 127.34°EPoleta — 37.86°N, 117.87°WIssafen — 30.27°N, 9.03°WErkhelnur — 51.00°N, 100.00°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Fallotaspididae and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Fallotaspididae and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

80 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Fallotaspididae, 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

18 references

Each of the 60 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. 6 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 Fallotaspididae

Credit
Sam Gon III
Licence
Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Fallotaspididae 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 itFallotaspidoidea through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hupe 1953