Westergaardites

Westergaardites is an Upper Cambrian trilobite that is known from the Eastern Tian Shan. It is related to Triarthrus, but can easily be distinguished from it by an extremely long exoskeleton, anteriorly placed eyes, a thorax of 19 segments with an extremely wide axis, and very narrow pleural regions, pleural spines, and a pygidium with marginal spines.

No picture of Westergaardites 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 Westergaardites, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OlenidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Olenidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 491.5 Mya to 490.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 497 Mya to 486.85 Mya.

Cambrian — about 9 of 9 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 9 occurrences497–497 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences497–496 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences496–496 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences496–496 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences496–495 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences495–495 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences495–495 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences495–494 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences494–494 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences494–493 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences493–493 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences493–493 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences493–492 Mya — about 1 occurrence492–492 Mya — about 1 occurrence492–492 Mya — about 1 occurrence492–491 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences491–491 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences491–490 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences490–490 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences490–490 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences490–489 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences489–489 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences489–489 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences489–488 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences488–488 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences488–487 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences487–487 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences487–487 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences491.5 Mya – 490.2 Mya497.5 Mya486.4 Mya

9 occurrences of Westergaardites 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

9 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

4 formations

Bestogai — 43.53°N, 69.95°EHuaqiao — 29.13°N, 110.95°EHales Limestone — 38.56°N, 116.43°WLower Hales — 38.00°N, 116.00°W

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The named rock units Westergaardites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Westergaardites and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Westergaardites and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

20 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Westergaardites, 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

5 references

Each of the 9 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 Westergaardites 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 Westergaardites, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Westergaardites 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 itOlenidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Troedsson 1937