Tasmanocephalus

Tasmanocephalus is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the early part of the Arenig stage of the Ordovician Period, a faunal stage which lasted from approximately 478 to 471 million years ago. Fossils of the genus have been reported from the Karmberg and Caroline Creek Formations of Tasmania, Australia.

No picture of Tasmanocephalus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Tasmanocephalus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MissisquoiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Corynexochida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Corynexochida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Corynexochida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Missisquoiidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 1.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 471.3 Mya to 469.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 473.1 Mya to 458.2 Mya.

Ordovician — about 2 of 2 occurrencesOrdovician474–473 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences473–473 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences471–471 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences469–469 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences468–468 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences467–467 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences466–466 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences465–465 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences464–464 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences462–462 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences461–461 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences460–460 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences459–459 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences458–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences471.3 Mya – 469.4 Mya473.6 Mya457.7 Mya

2 occurrences of Tasmanocephalus 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

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

Karmberg — 42.00°S, 146.00°ECaroline Creek — 41.25°S, 146.43°E

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

Tasmanocephalus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Tasmanocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

22 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Tasmanocephalus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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. 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 content0

No picture of Tasmanocephalus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Tasmanocephalus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Tasmanocephalus 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 itMissisquoiidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. kobayashi 1936