Acidaspis

Acidaspis is an extinct genus of odontopleurid trilobite from the Ordovician to Silurian of North America and Europe. Although small, it had long spines along its body.

Acidaspis

Ghedoghedo · 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
OdontopleurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Odontopleuridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 95 million years on record.

The record covers at least 488.9 Mya to 393.47 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 493.5 Mya to 387.95 Mya.

Cambrian — about 1 of 84 occurrencesOrdovician — about 53 of 84 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 29 of 84 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1 of 84 occurrencesDevonian496–492 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences492–488 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences459–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–452 Mya — about 5 occurrences452–448 Mya — about 35 occurrences448–444 Mya — about 11 occurrences444–441 Mya — about 3 occurrences441–437 Mya — about 3 occurrences437–433 Mya — about 3 occurrences433–430 Mya — about 14 occurrences430–426 Mya — about 7 occurrences426–422 Mya — about 2 occurrences397–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–389 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences389–386 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences488.9 Mya393.47 Mya496 Mya386 Mya

84 occurrences of Acidaspis 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

84 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

Kope — 39.06°N, 84.44°WKope — 39.03°N, 84.54°WKope — 38.68°N, 83.79°WKope — 38.68°N, 84.04°WDelorme — 62.38°N, 127.00°WDelorme — 62.78°N, 125.25°WCape Phillips — 75.10°N, 94.00°WCape Phillips — 74.10°N, 94.00°WCape Phillips — 75.00°N, 95.00°WCape Phillips — 75.80°N, 94.50°WWaynesville — 39.34°N, 84.95°WWaynesville — 39.48°N, 84.07°WWaynesville — 39.44°N, 85.01°WBoda Limestone — 60.97°N, 15.15°EBoda Limestone — 61.17°N, 14.71°EBoda Limestone — 61.05°N, 15.20°EClays Ferry — 38.00°N, 84.67°WClays Ferry — 38.34°N, 84.85°WClays Ferry — 37.59°N, 85.07°WClays Ferry — 38.33°N, 84.31°WMount Auburn — 39.43°N, 84.60°WMount Auburn — 38.87°N, 83.91°WMount Auburn — 39.33°N, 84.07°WMount Auburn — 38.50°N, 83.76°WMiamitown — 39.12°N, 84.51°WMiamitown — 39.30°N, 84.40°WKirkley Bank — 54.42°N, 2.83°WKirkley Bank — 54.43°N, 2.88°WWhite Head — 48.50°N, 64.25°WWhite Head — 46.88°N, 60.35°WWhittaker — 62.77°N, 125.25°WLexington Limestone — 38.21°N, 84.89°WLexington Limestone — 37.65°N, 84.95°WCorryville — 39.43°N, 84.60°WCorryville — 39.30°N, 84.40°WFairview — 39.03°N, 84.51°WFairview — 38.68°N, 83.79°WAttawapiskat — 52.96°N, 83.16°WAttawapiskat — 52.91°N, 82.68°WLangara — 60.00°N, 11.00°ESkelgill — 54.32°N, 2.75°WFerriters Cove — 52.13°N, 10.25°WFjacka Shale — 61.00°N, 15.00°EMotol — 49.97°N, 14.13°ERacine Dolomite — 43.00°N, 88.00°WHopkinton Dolomite — 41.98°N, 90.73°WBills Creek — 45.85°N, 85.88°WMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°W

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The named rock units Acidaspis 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. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acidaspis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Acidaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

925 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 80 sites for Acidaspis, 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

33 references

Each of the 84 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. 21 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 Acidaspis

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOdontopleurinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Murchison 1839