Mecochirus

Mecochirus is an extinct genus of lobster-like decapod crustaceans, containing 17 species. The Maxberg Specimen of Archaeopteryx was initially assigned to the type species, Mecochirus longimanatus before it was realised that it belonged to Archaeopteryx lithographica.

Mecochirus

Raimond Spekking · 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
MecochiridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Decapoda
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Mecochiridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 120 million years on record.

The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 199.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 39 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 39 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 11 of 39 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 10 of 39 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 7 of 39 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 39 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 39 occurrences202–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–193 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences193–188 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences188–184 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences184–179 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences179–174 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences174–170 Mya — about 9 occurrences170–165 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences165–161 Mya — about 1 occurrence161–156 Mya — about 4 occurrences156–151 Mya — about 1 occurrence151–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 2 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–133 Mya — about 1 occurrence133–128 Mya — about 3 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–100 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–91 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences86–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences192.9 Mya72.2 Mya202 Mya63 Mya

39 occurrences of Mecochirus on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

39 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

12 formations

Opalinuston — 47.43°N, 8.15°ESolnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.11°ESpartan Glacier — 71.46°S, 68.42°WSpartan Glacier — 71.48°S, 68.51°WSpartan Glacier — 71.99°S, 60.27°WArgiles a Lopha gregarea — 49.30°N, 0.07°WOpalinus Clay — 47.45°N, 8.17°EOpalinus Clay — 47.33°N, 7.84°EAlcobaca — 39.55°N, 9.00°WLombardische Kieselkalk — 46.00°N, 9.08°EOsta Arena — 43.80°S, 69.52°WSundance — 44.72°N, 104.61°WStonesfield Slate — 51.80°N, 1.88°WLe Mans — 48.00°N, 0.21°ENeptune Glacier — 73.38°S, 61.88°W

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The named rock units Mecochirus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mecochirus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Mecochirus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

296 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 37 sites for Mecochirus, 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 39 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 Mecochirus

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

No 3D scan of Mecochirus 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 itMecochiridae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Germar 1827