Phragmochaeta canicularis
Phragmochaeta canicularis is an extinct animal belonging to the annelids and lived in the Early Cambrian. Fossils have only been found in the Buen Formation at the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, Greenland and the animal is probably the first polychaete.

Conway Morris, S. and Peel, J.S. · 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
- PhragmochaetaPBDB
- Diet
- detritivorePBDB, for Polychaeta
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Polychaeta
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Polychaeta
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Polychaeta
Time the record covers
At most 5 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 516 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Phragmochaeta canicularis 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
1 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
1 formation
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The named rock units Phragmochaeta canicularis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Phragmochaeta canicularis and its relatives
CambrianWhere Phragmochaeta canicularis and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
16 taxa- Buenaspis forteyi1 site
- Buenellus higginsi1 site
- Choia hindei1 site
- Hadranax augustus1 site
- Halkieria evangelista1 site
- Heliosphaeridium1 site
- Isoxys volucris1 site
- Kerygmachela kierkegaardi1 site
- Kiisortoqia soperi n. gen. n. sp.1 site
- Kleptothule rasmusseni1 site
- Pambdelurion whittingtoni1 site
- Pauloterminus spinodorsalis1 site
- Porifera1 site
- Siricaris sp. n. gen.1 site
- Skiagia1 site
- Timorebestia koprii1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Phragmochaeta canicularis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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 referenceEach 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Phragmochaeta canicularis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Conway Morris, S. and Peel, J.S.
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Phragmochaeta canicularis 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 itPhragmochaeta through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conway Morris and Peel 2008