Swartpuntia

Swartpuntia is an extinct organism from the late Ediacaran of Namibia, and was alive around 547 – 540 Ma, with possible records in the lower Cambrian of Nevada at 518 Ma, and older Ediacaran records from Canada at 567.3 Ma. It is a part of the Erniettomorpha class, and is known to be composed of three vanes attached to a large, segmented central stalk. It is a monotypic genus, containing only Swartpuntia germsi.

Swartpuntia

Bruce Runnegar, James G. Gehling, Sören Jensen, Matthew R. Saltzman (2024) · CC BY 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
ErniettomorphaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Erniettomorpha
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Erniettomorpha
Environment
inner shelf,marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 521 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 506.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 4 of 12 occurrencesCambrian638–633 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences633–629 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences629–624 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences624–620 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences620–615 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences615–611 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences611–606 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences606–602 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences602–597 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences597–593 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences593–589 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences589–584 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences584–580 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences580–575 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences575–571 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences571–566 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences566–562 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences562–557 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences557–553 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences553–548 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences548–544 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences544–540 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences540–535 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences535–531 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences531–526 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences526–522 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences522–517 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences517–513 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences513–508 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences508–504 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences538.8 Mya521 Mya638 Mya504 Mya

12 occurrences of Swartpuntia 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

12 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

8 formations

Urusis — 27.48°S, 16.70°EUrusis — 27.45°S, 16.56°EWood Canyon — 36.40°N, 116.10°WWood Canyon — 35.04°N, 115.68°WVerkhovka — 64.70°N, 39.03°EVerkhovka — 64.38°N, 40.65°EPoleta — 37.30°N, 118.15°WUratanna — 30.45°S, 138.50°ECid — 35.25°N, 80.25°WNomtsas — 27.42°S, 16.43°EUrusis — 28.74°S, 17.55°E

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

Swartpuntia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Swartpuntia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

49 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Swartpuntia, 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

10 references

Each of the 12 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 content2

Picture of Swartpuntia

Credit
Bruce Runnegar, James G. Gehling, Sören Jensen, Matthew R. Saltzman (2024)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itErniettomorpha through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Narbonne et al. 1997