Heliolites

Searched as Heliolites interstinctus. The Paleobiology Database treats Heliolites as the accepted name.

Heliolites is a large and heterogenous genus of extinct tabulate corals in the family Heliolitidae. Specimens have been found in Ordovician to Devonian beds in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The genus is particularly abundant in the Wellin Member of the Hanonet Formation of Belgium.

Heliolites

Jonathan Chen · 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
HeliolitidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feeder, photosymbioticPBDB, for Tabulata
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Tabulata
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Tabulata
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 450.2 Mya to 422.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 419.62 Mya.

Ordovician — about 3 of 45 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 42 of 45 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 45 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences471–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–467 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences467–465 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences465–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–456 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences451–449 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences449–447 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences447–445 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences444–442 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences442–440 Mya — about 1 occurrence440–438 Mya — about 1 occurrence438–437 Mya — about 2 occurrences437–435 Mya — about 2 occurrences435–433 Mya — about 2 occurrences433–431 Mya — about 9 occurrences431–429 Mya — about 5 occurrences429–428 Mya — about 3 occurrences428–426 Mya — about 3 occurrences426–424 Mya — about 4 occurrences424–422 Mya — about 4 occurrences422–420 Mya — about 2 occurrences420–419 Mya — about 1 occurrence450.2 Mya422.7 Mya472 Mya419 Mya

45 occurrences of Heliolites on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

45 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

23 formations

La Vieille — 48.83°N, 64.48°WLa Vieille — 46.92°N, 66.00°WLa Vieille — 48.18°N, 65.03°WLa Vieille — 48.20°N, 64.80°WGascons — 48.18°N, 64.98°WGascons — 47.91°N, 66.52°WHemse Beds — 57.28°N, 18.32°EHemse Beds — 57.37°N, 18.69°EHemse Beds — 57.23°N, 18.37°EAnse a Pierre-Loiselle — 48.83°N, 64.48°WAnse a Pierre-Loiselle — 48.22°N, 64.88°WLimestone Point — 46.92°N, 66.00°WLimestone Point — 47.73°N, 65.72°WUpper Visby — 57.63°N, 18.30°EUpper Visby — 57.82°N, 18.48°ESlite Beds — 57.72°N, 18.80°EEke Beds — 57.17°N, 18.38°EHalla Beds — 57.53°N, 18.43°EKlinteberg Beds — 57.53°N, 18.43°EHamra Beds — 57.53°N, 18.43°ELerberget Marlstone — 57.63°N, 18.30°ESpangande Limestone — 57.63°N, 18.30°ESlite — 57.63°N, 18.30°EDzwinogorod Beds — 49.08°N, 25.40°EMuch Wenlock Limestone — 52.50°N, 2.08°WTernava Suite — 48.87°N, 26.53°EAmadjuak — 65.25°N, 73.17°WTortworth Beds — 51.88°N, 2.23°WDevalak — 34.35°N, 68.45°EMuch Wenlock — 52.60°N, 2.55°WVisby — 57.76°N, 18.43°EJaani — 58.62°N, 22.90°E

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The named rock units Heliolites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heliolites and its relatives

Silurian

Where Heliolites and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

1,775 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 295 sites for Heliolites, and this reads 240 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

17 references

Each of the 45 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. 5 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 Heliolites

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itHeliolitidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846