Sphaerocoryphe

Sphaerocoryphe is a genus of trilobite that lived from the middle Ordovician to the Silurian. Its fossils have been found in Australia, Europe, and North America. Both Sphaerocoryphe and Hemisphaerocoryphe had a characteristically bulbous glabella, and the two may represent only one genus.

Sphaerocoryphe

Skye McDavid · CC BY-SA 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
DeiphoninaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cheiruridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 464.3 Mya to 430.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 426.7 Mya.

Ordovician — about 116 of 119 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 3 of 119 occurrencesSilurian472–471 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences471–469 Mya — about 1 occurrence469–468 Mya — about 2 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 2 occurrences466–464 Mya — about 2 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 2 occurrences463–461 Mya — about 2 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 3 occurrences460–458 Mya — about 5 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 14 occurrences457–455 Mya — about 11 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 12 occurrences454–452 Mya — about 11 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 10 occurrences451–449 Mya — about 9 occurrences449–447 Mya — about 12 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 11 occurrences446–444 Mya — about 6 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 2 occurrences440–438 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences438–437 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences437–435 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences435–434 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences434–432 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432–430 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences430–429 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences429–427 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences427–426 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences464.3 Mya430.6 Mya472.2 Mya425.8 Mya

119 occurrences of Sphaerocoryphe on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

119 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

60 formations

Edinburg — 38.99°N, 78.35°WEdinburg — 38.99°N, 78.36°WEdinburg — 38.84°N, 78.55°WEdinburg — 38.82°N, 78.55°WWhittaker — 62.00°N, 127.00°WWhittaker — 61.52°N, 124.87°WWhittaker — 62.47°N, 124.85°WWhittaker — 63.28°N, 125.35°WWhittaker — 61.48°N, 125.05°WWhittaker — 62.46°N, 124.88°WBalclatchie — 55.22°N, 4.85°WBalclatchie — 54.84°N, 4.05°WBalclatchie — 55.17°N, 4.87°WBalclatchie — 55.31°N, 4.80°WCrown Point — 44.61°N, 73.42°WCrown Point — 44.71°N, 73.46°WCrown Point — 44.88°N, 73.44°WDalby — 58.00°N, 15.00°EDalby — 58.00°N, 14.00°EDalby — 58.00°N, 12.00°EBoda Limestone — 61.17°N, 14.71°EBoda Limestone — 61.05°N, 15.20°EBoda Limestone — 61.33°N, 14.55°EGrande Coupe — 48.54°N, 64.25°WEsbataottine — 62.00°N, 127.00°WEsbataottine — 61.63°N, 125.73°WEsbataottine — 61.63°N, 125.75°WArdwell Farm — 55.25°N, 4.85°WArdwell Farm — 55.22°N, 4.77°WKirkley Bank — 54.43°N, 2.78°WKirkley Bank — 54.43°N, 2.88°WHanson Creek — 39.38°N, 116.14°WHanson Creek — 39.00°N, 116.00°WFurudal — 58.00°N, 15.00°EFurudal — 60.92°N, 15.09°EKnockerk — 53.75°N, 6.55°WUlunda Mudstone — 58.00°N, 13.00°EValcour — 44.61°N, 73.42°WValcour — 44.30°N, 73.31°WKildare Limestone — 53.17°N, 6.75°WKildare Limestone — 53.20°N, 6.92°WKaragach — 48.01°N, 80.93°EHusbergøya — 59.85°N, 10.50°EHusbergøya — 59.88°N, 10.72°EJonstorp — 58.19°N, 13.53°EJonstorp — 58.33°N, 13.50°EDoularg — 55.20°N, 4.74°WLantz Mills — 38.53°N, 78.60°WHusbergoya Shale — 60.00°N, 11.00°EBillabong Creek Limestone — 33.33°S, 147.97°ESularp Shale — 55.71°N, 13.32°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sphaerocoryphe has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sphaerocoryphe and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Sphaerocoryphe and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,359 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 114 sites for Sphaerocoryphe, 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

64 references

Each of the 119 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. 52 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 Sphaerocoryphe

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphaerocoryphe 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 itDeiphoninae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Angelin 1854)