Pachyaspis

The University of British Columbia · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
- PtychopariidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Ptychopariidae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At least 8.3 million years on record.
The record covers at least 505.3 Mya to 497 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 509.7 Mya to 486.85 Mya.
20 occurrences of Pachyaspis 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- Cambrian100%
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
7 formations
- Carrara Formation5
- Pioche Shale Formation5
- Langston Formation3
- Arrojos Formation3
- Stephen Formation2
- Bright Angel Formation1
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The named rock units Pachyaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Pachyaspis and its relatives
CambrianWhere Pachyaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
161 taxa- Kootenia8 sites
- Alokistocare6 sites
- Hyolithes6 sites
- Micromitra6 sites
- Bathyuriscus5 sites
- Pagetia5 sites
- Paterina5 sites
- Zacanthoides5 sites
- Acrothele4 sites
- Bythicheilus4 sites
- Lingulella4 sites
- Ogygopsis4 sites
- Olenoides4 sites
- Alokistocarella3 sites
- Chancia3 sites
- Clavaspidella3 sites
- Dictyonina3 sites
- Ehmaniella3 sites
- Glossopleura3 sites
- Gogia3 sites
- Kochaspis3 sites
- Nisusia3 sites
- Oryctocephalus3 sites
- Pagetia clytia3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Pachyaspis, 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
10 references- Physical Stratigraphy and Trilobite Biostratigraphy of the Carrara Formation (Lower and Middle Cambrian) in the Southern Great Basin5
- Lower and early Middle Cambrian trilobites from the Pioche Shale, East-Central Nevada, U.S.A.4
- Upper Proterozoic and Cambrian rocks in the Caborca Region, Sonora, Mexico - physical stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, paleocurrent studies, and regional relations3
- Lower and Middle Cambrian stratigraphy in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho2
- Early Middle Cambrian Albertella biozone trilobites of the Pioche Shale, southeastern Nevada1
- Lower Cambrian trilobites of the Benxi area, Liaoning1
- Geological Setting of the Burgess Shale1
- Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains1
- Cambrian history of the Grand Canyon region1
- The Ptarmigania strata of the northwestern Wasatch Mountains1
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 Pachyaspis
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- The University of British Columbia
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPtychopariidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Resser 1938