Ptychaspididae

Ptychaspididae is a family of trilobites, containing the following genera:

Ptychaspis Hall, 1863, a relative of Ptychaspididae — not Ptychaspididae itself

Not Ptychaspididae. This is Ptychaspis Hall, 1863, a relative — both are Ptychaspididae.

Yale Peabody Museum · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
DikelocephaloideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asaphida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Asaphida
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 7.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 493.5 Mya to 486.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 477.1 Mya.

Cambrian — about 314 of 322 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 8 of 322 occurrencesOrdovician540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–536 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences536–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–531 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences525–523 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences523–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–514 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences512–510 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences510–508 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences506–504 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences504–502 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences502–499 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences499–497 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences497–495 Mya — about 14 occurrences495–493 Mya — about 34 occurrences493–491 Mya — about 88 occurrences491–489 Mya — about 120 occurrences489–487 Mya — about 58 occurrences487–484 Mya — about 3 occurrences484–482 Mya — about 2 occurrences482–480 Mya — about 1 occurrence480–478 Mya — about 1 occurrence478–476 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences493.5 Mya – 486.4 Mya540 Mya476 Mya

322 occurrences of Ptychaspididae 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

322 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

34 formations

Signal Mountain Limestone — 34.82°N, 98.41°WSignal Mountain Limestone — 34.39°N, 97.12°WFranconia — 44.52°N, 89.57°WFranconia — 44.45°N, 92.27°WFranconia — 44.42°N, 91.21°WWilberns — 31.00°N, 99.26°WWilberns — 30.93°N, 99.41°WWilberns — 30.62°N, 99.34°WWilberns — 30.98°N, 99.47°WBison Creek — 51.50°N, 116.20°WBison Creek — 52.23°N, 117.23°WBison Creek — 51.05°N, 115.57°WBison Creek — 52.27°N, 117.28°WShallow Bay — 49.83°N, 57.87°WShallow Bay — 49.92°N, 57.90°WShallow Bay — 49.87°N, 57.82°WNotch Peak — 39.22°N, 113.40°WNotch Peak — 38.83°N, 113.35°WNotch Peak — 38.67°N, 113.53°WDeadwood — 47.42°N, 105.59°WDeadwood — 44.28°N, 103.78°WDeadwood — 44.30°N, 103.65°WDeadwood — 44.08°N, 103.33°WDeadwood — 44.38°N, 103.68°WDeadwood — 44.25°N, 103.45°WDeadwood — 44.30°N, 103.62°WDeadwood — 44.52°N, 104.44°WMistaya — 51.50°N, 116.20°WMistaya — 52.23°N, 117.23°WMistaya — 51.88°N, 116.67°WMistaya — 51.05°N, 115.57°WRabbitkettle — 64.59°N, 130.01°WHwajeol — 37.08°N, 129.02°EHwajeol — 37.07°N, 129.15°EFengshan — 36.07°N, 113.82°EFengshan — 39.75°N, 118.32°ELevis Conglomerate — 46.82°N, 71.18°WWindfall — 39.50°N, 115.99°WWindfall — 39.97°N, 114.88°WWhitehall — 42.56°N, 73.40°WGorge — 44.92°N, 73.17°WGorge — 44.93°N, 73.05°WWhipple Cave — 39.23°N, 114.88°WWhipple Cave — 38.91°N, 114.94°WGatesburg — 40.38°N, 78.20°WGatesburg — 40.02°N, 78.50°WTomahawk — 22.00°S, 134.83°ETomahawk — 22.70°S, 133.05°ETomahawk — 22.06°S, 138.91°ESnowy Range — 47.15°N, 110.22°WSnowy Range — 45.87°N, 111.00°WSnowy Range — 45.92°N, 111.25°WLevis — 46.78°N, 71.20°WSurvey Peak — 51.50°N, 116.20°WSurvey Peak — 52.03°N, 116.84°WPacoota — 23.62°S, 134.50°EPacoota — 23.75°S, 133.33°EEmigrant — 37.90°N, 117.87°WHoyt Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WHoyt Limestone — 43.08°N, 73.86°W

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The named rock units Ptychaspididae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ptychaspididae and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Ptychaspididae and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

370 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 172 sites for Ptychaspididae, 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

43 references

Each of the 322 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. 31 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 Ptychaspis Hall, 1863

Source
GBIF
Credit
Yale Peabody Museum
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDikelocephaloidea through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Raymond 1924