Pleurocystites

Pleurocystites is a genus of rhombiferan echinoderm that lived in the Late Ordovician. Its fossils are known from Europe and North America. Pleurocystites grew to a height of 2 centimeters and fed on plankton.

Pleurocystites

Ghedoghedo · 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
PleurocystitinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Rhombifera
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Rhombifera
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Rhombifera
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhombifera
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 9.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 448.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Ordovician — about 65 of 65 occurrencesOrdovician472–471 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences465–465 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 4 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 4 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 4 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 4 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 8 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 9 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 10 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 4 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 5 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 2 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 3 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 3 occurrences446–446 Mya — about 3 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences458.2 Mya448.8 Mya471.8 Mya444.7 Mya

65 occurrences of Pleurocystites 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

65 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

25 formations

Verulam — 44.50°N, 78.97°WVerulam — 44.48°N, 78.95°WVerulam — 44.50°N, 79.17°WVerulam — 45.42°N, 75.73°WDunleith — 37.07°N, 89.57°WDunleith — 42.00°N, 90.50°WDunleith — 43.49°N, 91.87°WDunleith — 42.45°N, 89.08°WHull — 45.41°N, 75.73°WFort Atkinson — 43.13°N, 91.88°WFort Atkinson — 43.28°N, 91.85°WCummingsville — 44.50°N, 92.90°WCummingsville — 44.00°N, 92.00°WBromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°WBromide — 34.10°N, 97.18°WBobcaygeon — 44.53°N, 78.55°WBobcaygeon — 44.60°N, 79.00°WBobcaygeon — 44.58°N, 79.09°WVaureal — 49.67°N, 62.92°WVaureal — 49.76°N, 63.06°WOttawa — 45.46°N, 75.68°WOttawa — 45.52°N, 73.60°WFarr — 47.42°N, 79.60°WFarr — 47.45°N, 79.65°WIon — 42.00°N, 90.50°WAntelope Valley — 36.88°N, 116.67°WAntelope Valley — 36.78°N, 115.89°WDolhir — 52.93°N, 3.18°WWise Lake — 43.28°N, 91.85°WDecorah Shale — 44.00°N, 92.00°WProsser Limestone — 44.00°N, 92.00°WQuimbys Mill — 42.00°N, 90.50°WSpechts Ferry — 42.00°N, 90.50°WGuttenberg — 42.00°N, 90.50°WScales Shale — 43.05°N, 91.83°WSouth Threave — 55.29°N, 4.76°WLake Waswanipi Limestone — 49.47°N, 76.47°WCraighead — 55.25°N, 4.85°WSherman Falls — 45.42°N, 75.72°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pleurocystites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pleurocystites and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Pleurocystites and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

607 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Pleurocystites, 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

23 references

Each of the 65 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. 11 further references are not listed. 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 Pleurocystites

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

No 3D scan of Pleurocystites was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPleurocystitinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.