Pterygotus

Pterygotus is an extinct genus of giant predatory eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Pterygotus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from Middle Silurian to Late Devonian, and have been referred to several different species. Fossils have been recovered from five continents; Australia, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, which indicates that Pterygotus might have had a nearly cosmopolitan (worldwide) distribution. The type species, P. anglicus, was described by Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1839, who gave it the name Pterygotus, meaning "winged one". Agassiz mistakenly believed the remains were of a giant fish; he would only realize the mistake five years later in 1844.

Pterygotus

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
PterygotidaePBDB
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 66 million years on record.

The record covers at least 438.6 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 368.5 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 64 occurrencesSilurian — about 38 of 64 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 26 of 64 occurrencesDevonian445–442 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences442–439 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences439–437 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences437–434 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences434–432 Mya — about 2 occurrences432–429 Mya — about 2 occurrences429–426 Mya — about 5 occurrences426–424 Mya — about 5 occurrences424–421 Mya — about 12 occurrences421–419 Mya — about 13 occurrences419–416 Mya — about 8 occurrences416–414 Mya — about 8 occurrences414–411 Mya — about 2 occurrences411–408 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences408–406 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences406–403 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences403–401 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences401–398 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences398–395 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences395–393 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences393–390 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences390–388 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences388–385 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences385–383 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences383–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences372–370 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences370–367 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences438.6 Mya372.15 Mya445 Mya367 Mya

64 occurrences of Pterygotus 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

64 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

41 formations

Pozary — 49.93°N, 14.18°EPozary — 50.08°N, 14.47°EPozary — 49.52°N, 13.50°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°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WSyracuse — 43.07°N, 76.33°WBostów — 51.25°N, 21.57°EBostów — 50.47°N, 21.08°ESteinsfjorden — 60.17°N, 10.30°ESteinsfjorden — 60.03°N, 10.28°EBertie — 43.45°N, 74.95°WBertie — 42.88°N, 78.88°WWhitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.72°WFraenkelryggen — 79.83°N, 12.00°EAkron — 42.85°N, 78.80°WDalhousie Shale — 48.07°N, 66.37°WKnoppenbiessen — 50.97°N, 7.17°EOverton — 52.48°N, 2.63°WDalhousie — 48.06°N, 66.36°WWabash — 40.48°N, 86.18°WRondout — 43.05°N, 76.15°WHolland Quarry Shale — 41.67°N, 83.55°WKip Burn — 55.65°N, 3.92°WWenlock — 52.50°N, 2.08°WLeintwardine — 52.38°N, 2.85°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 52.37°N, 2.73°WLedbury — 51.95°N, 2.88°WRootsikula — 58.42°N, 22.50°EPaadla — 58.25°N, 22.50°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pterygotus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterygotus and its relatives

Silurian

Where Pterygotus and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

561 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 60 sites for Pterygotus, 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

29 references

Each of the 64 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. 17 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 content2

Picture of Pterygotus

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itPterygotidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1844