Psammichnites gigas

Psammichnites is an ichnogenus of trace fossils consisting primarily of large, horizontal locomotory burrows preserved in sandy or silty substrates. The traces are particularly characteristic of shallow-marine environments and are known from the Palaeozoic, with their earliest appearance dating back to the Fortunian Stage of the Cambrian. Psammichnites is notable for its large size, complex internal structure, and ability to record prolonged locomotion and sediment reworking over considerable distances.

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

Zekun Wang · CC BY 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
PsammichnitesPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 52 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 486.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 477.1 Mya.

Cambrian — about 5 of 7 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 1 of 7 occurrences638–633 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences633–627 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences627–622 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences622–616 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences616–611 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences611–605 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences605–600 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences600–594 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences594–589 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences589–583 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences583–578 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences578–572 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences572–567 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences567–562 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences562–556 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences556–551 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences551–545 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences545–540 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences540–534 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences534–529 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences529–523 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences523–518 Mya — about 3 occurrences518–512 Mya — about 1 occurrence490–485 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences485–479 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences479–474 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences538.8 Mya486.4 Mya638 Mya474 Mya

7 occurrences of Psammichnites gigas 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

7 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

4 formations

Pedroche — 37.95°N, 4.77°WBeach — 47.63°N, 52.92°WWood Canyon — 36.11°N, 116.16°WStáhpogieddi — 70.58°N, 28.08°E

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

Psammichnites gigas and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Psammichnites gigas and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

59 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Psammichnites gigas, 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

4 references

Each of the 7 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 Psammichnites gigas

Credit
Zekun Wang
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Psammichnites gigas 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 itPsammichnites through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Torell 1868)