Pterygotidae

Pterygotidae is a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. They were members of the superfamily Pterygotioidea. Pterygotids were the largest known arthropods to have ever lived with some members of the family, such as Jaekelopterus and Acutiramus, exceeding 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length. Their fossilized remains have been recovered in deposits ranging in age from 428 to 372 million years old.

Pterygotidae

Jessica Utrup · CC0 · 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
PterygotoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At least 73 million years on record.

The record covers at least 445.2 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 452.8 Mya to 368.5 Mya.

Ordovician — about 1 of 151 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 100 of 151 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 50 of 151 occurrencesDevonian454–452 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences452–449 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences449–446 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences446–443 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences443–440 Mya — about 2 occurrences440–437 Mya — about 3 occurrences437–434 Mya — about 3 occurrences434–431 Mya — about 9 occurrences431–428 Mya — about 6 occurrences428–425 Mya — about 10 occurrences425–422 Mya — about 22 occurrences422–419 Mya — about 47 occurrences419–416 Mya — about 15 occurrences416–414 Mya — about 15 occurrences414–411 Mya — about 6 occurrences411–408 Mya — about 2 occurrences408–405 Mya — about 2 occurrences405–402 Mya — about 2 occurrences402–399 Mya — about 2 occurrences399–396 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences396–393 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences393–390 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences390–387 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences387–384 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences384–381 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences373–370 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences370–367 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences445.2 Mya372.15 Mya454 Mya367 Mya

151 occurrences of Pterygotidae on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

151 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

75 formations

Pozary — 49.93°N, 14.18°EPozary — 50.08°N, 14.47°EPozary — 49.90°N, 14.02°EPozary — 49.52°N, 13.50°EBertie — 43.45°N, 74.95°WBertie — 42.88°N, 78.88°WBertie — 43.05°N, 76.15°WFiddlers Green — 42.85°N, 78.80°WLochkov — 50.08°N, 14.47°ELochkov — 49.50°N, 14.33°ELochkov — 49.93°N, 14.18°EWhitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.72°WWhitcliffe — 52.07°N, 2.65°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.37°N, 2.73°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WSyracuse — 43.07°N, 76.33°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WShawangunk — 40.98°N, 75.14°WShawangunk — 41.47°N, 74.54°WSteinsfjorden — 60.17°N, 10.30°ESteinsfjorden — 59.90°N, 10.53°ESteinsfjorden — 60.03°N, 10.28°ESundvollen — 60.17°N, 10.30°ESundvollen — 59.92°N, 10.75°EDundee Flagstone — 57.00°N, 4.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.67°N, 2.77°WRootsikula — 58.42°N, 22.50°EOlorda — 41.32°N, 1.97°EPridoli — 50.02°N, 14.38°EBostów — 51.25°N, 21.57°EBostów — 50.47°N, 21.08°EMifflintown — 39.70°N, 78.18°WBloomsburg — 39.04°N, 78.71°WBloomsburg — 39.91°N, 77.50°WVernon — 43.04°N, 75.59°WHolland Quarry Shale — 41.67°N, 83.55°WKip Burn — 55.65°N, 3.92°WLeintwardine — 52.38°N, 2.85°WTemeside Shale — 52.37°N, 2.73°WLedbury — 51.95°N, 2.88°WHogklint — 57.57°N, 18.30°E

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The named rock units Pterygotidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterygotidae and its relatives

Silurian

Where Pterygotidae and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

886 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 111 sites for Pterygotidae, 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

48 references

Each of the 151 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. 36 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 Pterygotidae

Credit
Jessica Utrup
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pterygotidae 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 itPterygotoidea through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Clarke and Ruedemann 1912