Gryphus
Gryphus is a genus of brachiopods belonging to the family Terebratulidae.

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
- GryphinaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Terebratulidae
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Terebratulidae
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Terebratulidae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 215 million years on record.
The record covers at least 215.38 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 11.7 ka.
219 occurrences of Gryphus on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
219 occurrences- Late Triassic8%
- Early Jurassic24%
- Middle Jurassic4%
- Late Jurassic7%
- Early Cretaceous3%
- Late Cretaceousunder 1%
- Paleoceneunder 1%
- Eocene21%
- Miocene10%
- Pliocene3%
- Pleistocene19%
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
37 formations
- Szoc Limestone Formation32
- Blue Lias Formation · Lias Group15
- Naha Formation · Ryukyu Group8
- White Lias Formation · Penarth Group7
- Alum Shale Formation4
- Rhodes Formation4
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The named rock units Gryphus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 103 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Gryphus and its relatives
Early JurassicWhere Gryphus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
697 taxa- Ichthyosaurus51 sites
- Ichthyosaurus communis21 sites
- Meznericsia hantkeni12 sites
- Terebratula12 sites
- Fallax septatus11 sites
- Terebratulina retusa10 sites
- Aphelesia bipartita9 sites
- Ostrea9 sites
- Ceramisia meneghiniana8 sites
- Dallina septigera8 sites
- Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris8 sites
- Megerlia truncata7 sites
- Kikaithyris hanzawai6 sites
- Lepidotes6 sites
- Sargodon tomicus6 sites
- Bivalvia5 sites
- Gastropoda5 sites
- Hybodus5 sites
- Ichthyosaurus acutirostris5 sites
- Jolonica ryukyuensis5 sites
- Megathiris detruncata5 sites
- Nemacanthus monilifer5 sites
- Pentacrinites5 sites
- Perisphinctes5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 194 sites for Gryphus, 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
74 references- Middle Eocene brachiopods from the Szoc Limestone Formation (Bakony Mountains, Hungary), with a description of a new genus32
- On the Zone of Avicula contorta, and the Lower Lias of the South of England19
- Brachiopodi batiali nel Pliocene e Pleistocene di Silicia e Calabria16
- Revision of Miocene brachiopods of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, with special regard to the Meznerics collection14
- Tertiary and Pleistocene Brachiopods of Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands9
- Tertiary and Cretaceous Brachiopods from Cuba and the Caribbean8
- Brachiopodi Neogenici e Pleistocenici della provincia di Messina e della Calabria meridionale6
- El Jurásico de Cerritos Bayos [The Jurassic of Cerritos Bayos]6
- Hawkins, 18346
- A revision of the latipinnate ichthyosaurs of the Lower Jurassic of England (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria)5
- New paleobiogeographical and paleoenvironmental insight through the Tortonian brachiopod and ichnofauna assemblages from the Mediterranean‑Atlantic seaway (Guadix Basin, SE Spain)4
- Pliocene Brachiopods from Rhodes Island (Cape Vagia section)4
Each of the 219 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. 62 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 content2

Picture of Gryphus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- NMNH - Division of Birds
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Vultur gryphus · USNM:BIRDS:USNM 346633
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 itGryphinae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Megerle von Mühlfeld 1811