Thaleops

Thaleops is an extinct genus of trilobite of the family Illaenidae. It lived from the Floian to the Katian of the Ordovician in what is now North America. Thaleops can be told apart from other illaenids because of the cheek spines that many species possess under their eyes. Thaleops had a large distribution range, With some species being found in parts of Canada to some U.S states including Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and New York. It is thought to have lived in shallow water, as a study published in Oklahoma found that deposits that contained Thaleops and the asaphid trilobite Bumastides contained 4 times as many trilobite genera, where associated with shallow water areas.

Thaleops

Fossiladder13 · CC BY-SA 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
IllaenidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Corynexochida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Corynexochida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Corynexochida
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 8.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 449.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 445.5 Mya.

Ordovician — about 115 of 115 occurrencesOrdovician472–471 Mya — about 2 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 4 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 4 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 4 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 4 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 4 occurrences466–466 Mya — about 4 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 4 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 4 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 4 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 4 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 4 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 4 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 4 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 4 occurrences458–458 Mya — about 6 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 5 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 5 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 5 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 5 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 7 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 6 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 6 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 7 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 5 occurrences449–449 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458.2 Mya449.6 Mya471.8 Mya445 Mya

115 occurrences of Thaleops 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

115 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

34 formations

Crown Point — 44.03°N, 73.42°WCrown Point — 44.86°N, 73.33°WCrown Point — 44.62°N, 73.41°WCrown Point — 44.58°N, 73.53°WCrown Point — 44.88°N, 73.44°WMingan — 50.20°N, 63.50°WMingan — 50.21°N, 63.45°WMingan — 50.21°N, 63.75°WMingan — 50.21°N, 63.90°WMingan — 50.21°N, 63.56°WMingan — 50.21°N, 64.13°WDay Point — 44.62°N, 73.44°WDay Point — 44.87°N, 73.48°WDay Point — 44.68°N, 73.45°WEdinburg — 36.88°N, 81.68°WEdinburg — 37.74°N, 79.51°WWardell — 37.00°N, 81.00°WWardell — 37.03°N, 81.79°WWardell — 37.02°N, 81.73°WWardell — 37.11°N, 81.52°WWardell — 37.10°N, 81.34°WValcour — 44.62°N, 73.41°WValcour — 44.30°N, 73.31°WVerulam — 44.50°N, 78.67°WVerulam — 44.43°N, 78.78°WVerulam — 44.50°N, 78.97°WVerulam — 44.48°N, 78.95°WGrand Detour — 42.00°N, 90.00°WGrand Detour — 42.00°N, 90.50°WGuttenberg — 42.00°N, 90.00°WGuttenberg — 42.00°N, 90.50°WQuimbys Mill — 42.00°N, 90.00°WQuimbys Mill — 42.00°N, 90.50°WBromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°WAmadjuak — 63.72°N, 68.97°WAmadjuak — 68.77°N, 81.22°WLindsay — 45.50°N, 81.00°WLindsay — 44.58°N, 78.98°WKimmswick limestone — 39.05°N, 90.66°WKimmswick limestone — 38.32°N, 90.38°WFrobisher Bay — 64.10°N, 69.45°WCummingsville — 44.50°N, 92.90°WMifflin — 42.00°N, 90.00°WPecatonica — 42.00°N, 90.00°WChaumont — 43.23°N, 75.07°WPlatteville — 44.98°N, 93.27°WDecorah Shale — 44.98°N, 93.27°WNachusa — 42.00°N, 90.50°WSpechts Ferry — 42.00°N, 90.50°WIon — 42.00°N, 90.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Thaleops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thaleops and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Thaleops and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

742 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 106 sites for Thaleops, 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

23 references

Each of the 115 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. 11 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 content1

Picture of Thaleops

Credit
Fossiladder13
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thaleops was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itIllaenidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad 1843