Isoxys

Isoxys is a genus of extinct bivalved Cambrian arthropod; the various species of which are thought to have been freely swimming predators. It had a pair of large spherical eyes, and two large frontal appendages used to grasp prey.

Isoxys

Holly Sullivan (artwork) Caixia Zhang, Yu Liu, Javier Ortega-Hernández, Joanna M. Wolfe, Changfei Jin, Huijuan Mai, X… · 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
IsoxyidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 117 of 117 occurrencesCambrian540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–532 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 3 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 21 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 21 occurrences518–516 Mya — about 21 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 14 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 7 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 5 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 2 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 5 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 5 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 4 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 1 occurrence503–502 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences498–496 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences516 Mya504.5 Mya539.6 Mya496.2 Mya

117 occurrences of Isoxys 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

117 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

Yuanshan — 25.07°N, 102.68°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 25.50°N, 102.40°EYuanshan — 25.40°N, 103.38°EYuanshan — 25.68°N, 102.17°EYuanshan — 25.72°N, 103.99°EYuanshan — 24.00°N, 102.00°EYu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 25.55°N, 102.40°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WBalang — 28.42°N, 109.42°EWulongqing — 24.95°N, 102.80°EWulongqing — 25.68°N, 102.17°ENiutitang — 27.60°N, 106.71°ENiutitang — 27.67°N, 106.68°EStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WBuen — 82.63°N, 32.50°WBuen — 82.79°N, 42.23°WMarsden Sandstone — 35.58°S, 137.50°ECape Zhurinskiy — 65.00°N, 130.00°EMount Cap — 64.45°N, 126.87°WCal Tepe — 37.42°N, 31.85°EParara — 34.70°S, 137.71°EAjax Limestone — 30.59°S, 138.33°EDuchesnay — 51.10°N, 115.95°WMernmerna — 31.19°S, 138.87°EShuijingtuo — 30.50°N, 111.16°EWheeler Shale — 39.29°N, 113.31°WMantou — 36.50°N, 118.70°EZhangxia Formation — 35.13°N, 118.07°E

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

Isoxys and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Isoxys and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

661 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Isoxys, 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

28 references

Each of the 117 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. 16 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 Isoxys

Credit
Holly Sullivan (artwork) Caixia Zhang, Yu Liu, Javier Ortega-Hernández, Joanna M. Wolfe, Changfei Jin, Huijuan Mai, X…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Isoxys 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 itIsoxyidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1890