Mickwitzia

Mickwitziids are a Cambrian group of shelly fossils with originally phosphatic valves, belonging to the Brachiopod stem group, and exemplified by the genus Mickwitzia – the other genera are Heliomedusa and Setatella. The family Mickwitziidae is conceivably paraphyletic with respect to certain crown-group brachiopods.

Mickwitzia

Mai Seppel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikidata/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
MickwitziidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Brachiopoda
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Brachiopoda
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Brachiopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 700 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 515.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 506.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 20 of 20 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–530 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 1 occurrence520–519 Mya — about 3 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 3 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 3 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 3 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 1 occurrence514–513 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences513–511 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516 Mya – 515.3 Mya539.4 Mya505.9 Mya

20 occurrences of Mickwitzia 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

20 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

10 formations

Ajax Limestone — 30.60°S, 138.33°EMickwitzia Sandstone — 58.60°N, 13.35°EMickwitzia Sandstone — 58.62°N, 13.43°EFile Haidar — 58.62°N, 13.77°EMural — 53.19°N, 119.16°WBastion — 74.10°N, 23.00°WElla Island — 74.10°N, 22.98°WCampito — 37.02°N, 117.96°WLatham — 34.54°N, 115.48°WLukatite, Tiskre — 59.12°N, 31.03°EAndamooka Limestone — 30.12°S, 137.16°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Mickwitzia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Mickwitzia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

66 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Mickwitzia, 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

8 references

Each of the 20 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. 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 Mickwitzia

Credit
Mai Seppel
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itMickwitziidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schmidt 1888