Tetragramma

Tetragramma is a genus of fossil sea urchins known from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) to the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian).

Tetragramma

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
PseudodiadematidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, deposit feederPBDB, for Echinoidea
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Echinoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Echinoidea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 4 of 90 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 32 of 90 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 54 of 90 occurrencesLate Cretaceous156–154 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–118 Mya — about 4 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 4 occurrences116–113 Mya — about 4 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 1 occurrence107–104 Mya — about 5 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 6 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 10 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 18 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 18 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 11 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149.2 Mya93.9 Mya156 Mya89 Mya

90 occurrences of Tetragramma on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

90 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

30 formations

Grès verts helvétiques — 45.99°N, 6.71°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.09°N, 6.76°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.03°N, 6.57°EGrès verts helvétiques — 45.98°N, 6.78°ECotinguiba — 11.00°S, 37.31°WCotinguiba — 10.63°S, 36.92°WCotinguiba — 10.63°S, 36.95°WCotinguiba — 11.35°S, 37.46°WGrizzle — 50.80°N, 0.18°EGalala — 30.38°N, 33.52°ERisan Aneiza — 31.00°N, 33.50°ERisan Aneiza — 30.79°N, 33.48°EHalal — 30.37°N, 34.45°EHalal — 30.79°N, 33.48°EWilmington Sands — 50.80°N, 0.18°EPicofrentes — 41.12°N, 2.77°WFerruginous Sands — 50.60°N, 1.32°WFerruginous Sands — 50.63°N, 1.17°WKanawa Limestones — 10.30°N, 11.38°EMarno-calcaires à Heteraster oblongus — 38.85°N, 9.33°WWasia — 24.39°N, 47.75°EWasia — 27.95°N, 43.90°EHythe — 51.08°N, 1.18°ESandgate — 51.67°N, 1.58°WWoburn Sand — 52.00°N, 0.77°WTaboulouart — 31.21°N, 7.88°WTadhart — 31.21°N, 7.88°WQishn — 14.30°N, 48.49°EMauddud — 25.90°N, 56.07°EMujarrun — 6.57°S, 78.73°WCalcaires de Fiz — 46.10°N, 6.78°ELe Mans — 48.00°N, 0.21°ESecond niveau de Calcaires à Rudistes — 45.95°N, 1.08°WCalcaires récifaux supérieurs — 38.85°N, 9.33°W

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The named rock units Tetragramma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tetragramma and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Tetragramma and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

698 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Tetragramma, 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

30 references

Each of the 90 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. 18 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 content2

Picture of Tetragramma

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itPseudodiadematidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1840