Miraspis

Miraspis mira is a spinose species of odontopleurid trilobite in the family Odontopleuridae. Fossils of M. mira are known from the Wenlock-aged Liteň Formation in Loděnice, in Bohemia, Czech Republic, originally described by Joachim Barrande, in 1846, as "Odontopleura mira." In 1917, Richter and Richter split "O. mira" off into its own genus, Miraspis.

Miraspis

Apokryltaros · 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
MiraspidinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 457.2 Mya to 413.02 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 458.2 Mya to 410.62 Mya.

Ordovician — about 20 of 38 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 17 of 38 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1 of 38 occurrencesDevonian459–458 Mya — about 3 occurrences458–456 Mya — about 3 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 3 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 2 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 2 occurrences451–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–448 Mya — about 2 occurrences448–446 Mya — about 2 occurrences446–444 Mya — about 2 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 1 occurrence443–441 Mya — about 1 occurrence441–439 Mya — about 2 occurrences439–438 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences438–436 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences436–434 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences434–433 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences433–431 Mya — about 3 occurrences431–429 Mya — about 3 occurrences429–428 Mya — about 3 occurrences428–426 Mya — about 2 occurrences426–425 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences415–413 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences413–411 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences457.2 Mya413.02 Mya459.2 Mya409.7 Mya

38 occurrences of Miraspis 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

38 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

24 formations

Motol — 50.00°N, 17.78°EMotol — 50.03°N, 14.32°EMotol — 50.00°N, 14.22°EMotol — 49.97°N, 14.13°EColdwell — 54.37°N, 2.47°WSolvang — 60.00°N, 11.00°ESolvang — 60.05°N, 10.18°EKraluv Dvur — 50.00°N, 14.00°EKraluv Dvur — 50.04°N, 14.41°EZelkovice — 50.00°N, 14.05°EKnockerk — 53.75°N, 6.55°WSkagen Limestone — 58.00°N, 14.00°ELindero — 35.20°S, 68.23°WHughley Shales — 52.67°N, 2.00°WCampile — 53.50°N, 7.17°WEdinburg — 38.99°N, 78.35°WLangåra — 59.85°N, 10.49°EHusbergøya — 59.85°N, 10.49°EDalby Limestone — 63.18°N, 14.08°EBoda Limestone — 60.98°N, 15.22°ETommarp — 58.18°N, 13.47°EFreberga — 58.61°N, 13.42°ERaheen — 52.21°N, 6.98°WWoodland — 55.22°N, 4.88°WColonus Shale — 55.58°N, 14.11°EBalclatchie — 55.24°N, 4.78°WSt. Clair Limestone — 35.77°N, 91.63°WRabbit Hill Limestone — 39.20°N, 116.42°WSort Tepe — 37.28°N, 43.56°E

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The named rock units Miraspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Miraspis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Miraspis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

511 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Miraspis, 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

26 references

Each of the 38 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. 14 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 Miraspis

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

No 3D scan of Miraspis 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 itMiraspidinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Richter and Richter 1917