Phacops

Searched as Phacops (Calliops) jukesi vicina. The Paleobiology Database treats Phacops as the accepted name.

Phacops is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae, that lived in Europe, northwestern Africa, North and South America and China from the Late Ordovician until the very end of the Devonian, with a broader time range described from the Late Ordovician. It was a rounded animal, with a globose head and large eyes, and probably fed on detritus. Phacops is often found rolled up ("volvation"), a biological defense mechanism that is widespread among smaller trilobites but further perfected in this genus.

Phacops

RealGatba · 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
PhacopidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Phacopina
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Phacopidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 4.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 456.6 Mya and 452.5 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 1 of 1 occurrenceOrdovician457–457 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457.1 Mya452 Mya

1 occurrence of Phacops 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

1 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

1 formation

Balclatchie — 55.23°N, 4.87°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Phacops and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Phacops and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,495 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 233 sites for Phacops, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Phacops

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

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
phacops rana · MST:PALEO:MST-SP-7232

3D model

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

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 itPhacopidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Emmrich 1839