Tanglangia

Tanglangia is an extinct genus of megacheiran arthropod that lived during the 3rd and 4th stages of the Cambrian period. The genus contains two species, T. longicaudata and T. rangatanga, both of which are known from fossils found in the Maotianshan and Emu Bay shales respectively. The largest specimens grew up to around 3.5 cm in body length.

Tanglangia

Michel Schmidt, Xianguang Hou, Huijuan Mai, Guixian Zhou, Roland R. Melzer, Xilin Zhang & Yu Liu · 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
ArthropodaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda

Time the record covers

At most 8.9 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 512.1 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 2 of 2 occurrencesCambrian521–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–521 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521.5 Mya511.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Tanglangia 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

2 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

Yuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EMarsden Sandstone — 35.58°S, 137.50°E

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

Tanglangia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Tanglangia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

157 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Tanglangia, 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 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Tanglangia

Credit
Michel Schmidt, Xianguang Hou, Huijuan Mai, Guixian Zhou, Roland R. Melzer, Xilin Zhang & Yu Liu
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tanglangia 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.

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 itArthropoda through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lou and Hu 1999