Radiaspis

Radiaspis is a genus of trilobite that lived from Late Ordovician through the Silurian to the mid-Devonian period. Fossils of Radiaspis have been found in present-day Europe, Australia, North Africa, and North America.

Radiaspis

Daderot · 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
OdontopleurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 443.1 Mya to 387.95 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 449.5 Mya to 385.9 Mya.

Ordovician — about 3 of 31 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 17 of 31 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 11 of 31 occurrencesDevonian451–449 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences449–446 Mya — about 1 occurrence446–444 Mya — about 1 occurrence444–442 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences433–431 Mya — about 4 occurrences431–429 Mya — about 7 occurrences429–427 Mya — about 3 occurrences427–424 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences424–422 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences422–420 Mya — about 2 occurrences420–418 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences413–411 Mya — about 2 occurrences411–409 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences409–407 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences407–404 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences404–402 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences402–400 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences400–398 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences398–396 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences396–393 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences393–391 Mya — about 1 occurrence391–389 Mya — about 1 occurrence389–387 Mya — about 1 occurrence387–385 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences443.1 Mya387.95 Mya451 Mya385 Mya

31 occurrences of Radiaspis 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

31 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

14 formations

Cape Phillips — 75.10°N, 94.00°WCape Phillips — 75.00°N, 95.00°WCape Phillips — 74.10°N, 94.00°WDelorme — 62.38°N, 127.00°WDelorme — 62.78°N, 125.25°WPozary — 49.95°N, 12.93°EPozary — 49.52°N, 13.50°ECystoid Limestone — 41.15°N, 1.18°WCystoid Limestone — 41.17°N, 1.15°WHanonet — 50.09°N, 5.18°EHanonet — 50.06°N, 4.50°EMotol — 50.00°N, 17.78°EVinarice Limestone — 50.00°N, 14.00°EWhittaker — 62.77°N, 125.25°WTaemas — 34.95°S, 148.82°ELe Fret — 48.40°N, 4.48°WHardwood Mountain — 45.72°N, 69.85°WJemelle — 50.16°N, 5.26°EGrevenstein — 51.03°N, 7.33°EAbelgas — 42.85°N, 5.24°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Radiaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Radiaspis and its relatives

Silurian

Where Radiaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

458 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Radiaspis, 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

17 references

Each of the 31 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. 5 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 Radiaspis

Credit
Daderot
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 itOdontopleurinae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Richter and Richter 1917