Hesperocystis

Hesperocystis

Sprinkle, James · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
GlyptocystitidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Rhombifera
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Rhombifera
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Rhombifera
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhombifera
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At most 7.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 457.3 Mya and 449.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 3 of 3 occurrencesOrdovician458–457 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences452–452 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences452–452 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457.8 Mya449.1 Mya

3 occurrences of Hesperocystis 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

3 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

1 formation

Bromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°WBromide — 34.46°N, 96.52°W

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

Hesperocystis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Hesperocystis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

56 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Hesperocystis, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Hesperocystis

Source
GBIF
Credit
Sprinkle, James
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hesperocystis 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGlyptocystitidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sinclair 1945