Megalaspides

Megalaspides is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the later part of the Arenig stage of the Ordovician Period, approximately 478 to 471 million years ago.

Megalaspides

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
IsotelinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asaphida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Asaphida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Asaphidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 18 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 458.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 449.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 112 occurrencesOrdovician — about 112 of 112 occurrencesOrdovician488–486 Mya — about 1 occurrence486–485 Mya — about 3 occurrences485–484 Mya — about 3 occurrences484–482 Mya — about 3 occurrences482–481 Mya — about 3 occurrences481–480 Mya — about 3 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 3 occurrences479–477 Mya — about 3 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 9 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 15 occurrences475–473 Mya — about 17 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 17 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 14 occurrences471–469 Mya — about 9 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 8 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 1 occurrence467–466 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences457–455 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477.1 Mya458.2 Mya487.6 Mya448.8 Mya

112 occurrences of Megalaspides 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

112 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

17 formations

Tøyen — 59.72°N, 9.85°ETøyen — 59.65°N, 9.65°ETøyen — 59.73°N, 9.87°ETøyen — 59.92°N, 9.97°ETøyen — 59.92°N, 10.78°ETøyen — 59.25°N, 10.90°ETøyen — 59.68°N, 10.71°EMeitan — 28.00°N, 107.00°EMeitan — 29.00°N, 107.00°EMeitan — 27.00°N, 107.00°EMeitan — 29.00°N, 109.00°EMeitan — 28.00°N, 105.00°EDawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 108.00°EDawan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 30.90°N, 111.39°ELeetse — 59.63°N, 30.80°ELeetse — 59.75°N, 30.43°ELeetse — 59.88°N, 31.59°ELaozai — 23.00°N, 104.00°EZhitai — 29.00°N, 109.00°EShirgesht — 34.10°N, 56.80°EFengdong'gun — 28.00°N, 105.00°ELeetse — 59.40°N, 24.61°ELeetse — 59.47°N, 24.94°ELatorp — 59.24°N, 14.94°EGuniutan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 107.00°EYanwashan — 28.00°N, 118.00°EZhaojiaba — 33.00°N, 106.00°ENinemile — 37.34°N, 115.38°WValhallfonna — 79.80°N, 17.76°ETøyen — 61.19°N, 14.87°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Megalaspides has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megalaspides and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Megalaspides and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

334 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Megalaspides, 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 112 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 Megalaspides

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megalaspides was found in Sketchfab.

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 itIsotelinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brögger 1886