Volborthella tenuis

Volborthella is an animal of uncertain classification, whose fossils pre-date 530 million years ago. It has been considered for a period a cephalopod. However discoveries of more detailed fossils showed that Volborthella’s small, conical shell was not secreted but built from grains of the mineral silicon dioxide (silica), and that it was not divided into a series of compartments by septa as those of fossil shelled cephalopods and the living Nautilus are. This illusion was a result of the laminated texture of the organisms' tests. Therefore, Volborthella's classification is now uncertain. It has been speculated that it may in fact represent a sclerite of a larger organism, on the basis of one specimen; however, it may be premature to accept this hypothesis, as the arrangement of sclerites producing this impression may have occurred by chance. The Ordovician scleritome-bearing Curviconophorus, as well as the Halwaxiids, lobopods and echinoderms, demonstrate the diversity of organisms which may produce a scleritome of this nature. The related Campitius was originally suggested to be part of a radula rather than a scleritome, but is now considered a synonym of Volborthella.

Volborthella tenuis

Stadtmuseum Berlin · CC BY 3.0 · 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
VolborthellaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 9.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 506.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 8 of 8 occurrencesCambrian540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences537–535 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 1 occurrence519–518 Mya — about 1 occurrence518–516 Mya — about 1 occurrence516–515 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences498–496 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516 Mya506.5 Mya539.6 Mya496.2 Mya

8 occurrences of Volborthella tenuis 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

8 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

7 formations

Mickwitzia Sandstone — 58.60°N, 13.35°EMickwitzia Sandstone — 58.62°N, 13.43°EHarkless — 36.98°N, 117.93°WFile Haidar — 58.62°N, 13.77°ERingstrand — 60.90°N, 10.73°EDuolbasgaissa — 70.58°N, 28.18°EJince — 49.78°N, 13.97°EBråstad Shale — 60.73°N, 10.34°E

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

Volborthella tenuis and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Volborthella tenuis and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

55 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Volborthella tenuis, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 content1

Picture of Volborthella tenuis

Credit
Stadtmuseum Berlin
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Volborthella tenuis 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 itVolborthella through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schmidt 1888