Helminthopsis

Helminthopsis is an ichnogenus of trace fossil that is found preserved on the bedding planes of fine-grained sedimentary rocks. It is characterized by short, curvilinear, nonbranching, parallel-sided, unlined traces on bedding surfaces. It is thought to represent the submarine feeding trails of an invertebrate organism that worked the surface of muddy substrates in search of food. Because Helminthopsis traces never cross over themselves, the ichnogenus is distinguished from similar traces assigned to the Gordia ichnogenus. The similar sounding, but now obsolete, ichnogenus Helminthoida refers to a somewhat similar trace characterized by regular, back-and-forth meanders, whereas Helminthopsis is irregular.

A picture published with the record for Helminthopsis. What it shows has not been checked.

Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia · Public Domain · 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
IchnofossilsPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 455 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 2 of 29 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 5 of 29 occurrencesSilurian — about 0 of 29 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 29 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 1 of 29 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 29 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 29 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 29 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 29 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 29 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 29 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 29 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 29 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 29 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 29 occurrences646–627 Mya — about 1 occurrence627–607 Mya — about 3 occurrences607–588 Mya — about 3 occurrences588–568 Mya — about 3 occurrences568–549 Mya — about 3 occurrences549–529 Mya — about 3 occurrences529–510 Mya — about 1 occurrence490–471 Mya — about 5 occurrences471–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences315–295 Mya — about 1 occurrence276–256 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences256–237 Mya — about 1 occurrence178–158 Mya — about 1 occurrence158–139 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences139–119 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences100–80 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences80–61 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences538.8 Mya83.6 Mya646 Mya61 Mya

29 occurrences of Helminthopsis on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

29 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

20 formations

Urusis — 27.48°S, 16.70°EUrusis — 27.45°S, 16.56°EUrusis — 27.70°S, 17.02°EUrusis — 28.74°S, 17.55°EBeach — 47.63°N, 52.92°WNudaus — 24.36°S, 16.49°ENudaus — 24.22°S, 16.38°EStranger — 38.57°N, 95.31°WWhite Limestone — 51.75°N, 1.17°WCurrier — 49.70°N, 126.62°WLopez de Bertodano — 64.25°S, 56.75°WOcieseki Sandstone — 50.90°N, 20.90°EPowers Steps — 47.63°N, 52.99°WVolksrust Shale — 27.86°S, 29.70°ECerro de Las Cabras — 32.37°S, 68.95°WDeep Spring — 37.34°N, 117.33°WFloyd Church — 35.42°N, 80.33°WEstenilla — 39.67°N, 5.03°WCíjara — 39.67°N, 5.03°WPusa Shale — 39.67°N, 5.03°WEast Twin — 53.08°N, 118.63°WBlueflower — 63.39°N, 128.48°WLandeyran — 43.57°N, 3.37°E

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

Helminthopsis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Helminthopsis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

259 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Helminthopsis, 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

19 references

Each of the 29 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. 7 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 Helminthopsis

Credit
Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Helminthopsis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itIchnofossils through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Heer 1877