Sphaerocystites

Sphaerocystites

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
CallocystitidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Rhombifera
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Rhombifera
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Rhombifera
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhombifera
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At most 9.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 422.7 Mya and 413.02 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Silurian — about 2 of 3 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1 of 3 occurrencesDevonian423–422 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences422–422 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences422–422 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences422–421 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences421–421 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences421–421 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences421–420 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences420–420 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences420–420 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences420–419 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences419–419 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences419–419 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences419–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences418–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences418–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences418–417 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences417–417 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences417–416 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416–416 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416–416 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences415–415 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences415–415 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences414–414 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences414–414 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences414–413 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413–413 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences423.2 Mya412.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Sphaerocystites 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

3 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

2 formations

Keyser Limestone — 39.43°N, 78.97°WKeyser Limestone — 39.45°N, 78.97°WClam Bank — 48.65°N, 59.02°W

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The named rock units Sphaerocystites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Sphaerocystites and its relatives

Silurian

Where Sphaerocystites and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Sphaerocystites, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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. 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 Sphaerocystites

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphaerocystites 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCallocystitidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hall 1859