Paleodictyon

Paleodictyon is a trace fossil, usually interpreted to be a burrow, which appears in the geologic marine record beginning in the Precambrian/Early Cambrian and in modern ocean environments. Paleodictyon were first described by Giuseppe Meneghini in 1850. The origin of the trace fossil is enigmatic and numerous candidates have been proposed.

A picture published with the record for Paleodictyon. What it shows has not been checked.

Falconaumanni · 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
IchnofossilsPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 471 million years on record.

The record covers at least 512.1 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 516 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Cambrian — about 1 of 2 occurrencesOrdovician — about 0 of 2 occurrencesSilurian — about 0 of 2 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 2 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences526–509 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence512.1 Mya41.03 Mya526 Mya28 Mya

2 occurrences of Paleodictyon on record, most of them in the Cambrian. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

Ocieseki Sandstone — 50.90°N, 20.90°EEzkaba Sandstone — 42.82°N, 1.67°W

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

Paleodictyon and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Paleodictyon and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

The Paleobiology Database records no fossil sites for Paleodictyon, so there is nothing to compare it with.

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 content2

Picture of Paleodictyon

Credit
Falconaumanni
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itIchnofossils through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Savi and Meneghini 1851