Ostenocaris

Ostenocaris is a Jurassic genus of giant thylacocephalan arthropod, sufficiently distinct from its relatives to be placed in its own family, Ostenocarididae. It comprises at least two known species, Ostenocaris cypriformis and Ostenocaris ribeti. It is an enigmatic taxon, whose physiology and life habits are still poorly known from fossil material. Initially it was thought to be a filter-feeding, partially infaunal, eyeless organism, or a bizarre barnacle named "Ostenia cypriformis". More recently, as in general for the group to which it belongs, the Thylacocephala, the interpretation has shifted to a necrophagous or predatory organism, demersal or nectonic, with highly developed eyes and of deep-sea environment.

Ostenocaris

Antonov Antonio Valdisturlo · 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
OstenocarididaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Thylacocephala
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Thylacocephala
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thylacocephala
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Thylacocephala

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 199.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 192.9 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic250–248 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences200–198 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences198–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences196–194 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194–192 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247 Mya199.5 Mya250 Mya192 Mya

2 occurrences of Ostenocaris on record. 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

2 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

2 formations

Lombardische Kieselkalk — 46.00°N, 9.08°EOsawa — 38.71°N, 141.54°E

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

Found in the same rock

56 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Ostenocaris, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 Ostenocaris

Credit
Antonov Antonio Valdisturlo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ostenocaris 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 itOstenocarididae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Arduini et al. 1984