Haplophrentis

Haplophrentis is a genus of tiny shelled hyolithid which lived in the Cambrian Period. Its shell was long and conical, with the open end protected by an operculum, from which two fleshy arms called helens protruded at the sides. These arms served to elevate the opening of the shells above the sea floor, acting like stilts.

Haplophrentis

Qohelet12 · CC BY-SA 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
HyolithidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Hyolithida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Hyolithida
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Hyolithida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Hyolitha
Environment
marinePBDB, for Hyolitha

Time the record covers

At least 2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 506.5 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 38 of 38 occurrencesCambrian540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences537–535 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 4 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 10 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 10 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 8 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences498–496 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences506.5 Mya – 504.5 Mya539.6 Mya496.2 Mya

38 occurrences of Haplophrentis 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

38 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

8 formations

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.03°N, 115.83°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°WBalang — 26.65°N, 107.95°EBalang — 27.17°N, 108.54°EBalang — 26.39°N, 107.69°EStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WDuchesnay — 51.10°N, 115.95°WDuchesnay — 50.63°N, 115.60°WMount Cap — 64.45°N, 126.87°WRennie Shale — 47.98°N, 116.35°WSpence Shale — 42.28°N, 111.50°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Haplophrentis and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Haplophrentis and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

307 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Haplophrentis, 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

12 references

Each of the 38 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 Haplophrentis

Credit
Qohelet12
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Haplophrentis 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 itHyolithidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Babcock and Robison 1988