Acrotretida

Acrotretides (Acrotretida) are an extinct order of linguliform brachiopods in the class Lingulata. Acrotretida contains 8 families within the sole superfamily Acrotretoidea. They lived from the Lower Cambrian to the Middle Devonian, rapidly diversifying during the middle Cambrian. In the upper Cambrian, linguliforms reached the apex of their diversity: acrotretides and their relatives the lingulides together comprised nearly 70% of brachiopod genera at this time. Though acrotretides continued to diversify during the Ordovician, their proportional dominance declined, as rhynchonelliforms took on a larger role in brachiopod faunas.

Acrotretida

Zhiliang Zhang, Zhifei Zhang, Lars E. Holmer & Feiyang Chen · CC BY 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
LingulataPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Lingulata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 443 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Cambrian — about 918 of 1734 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 772 of 1734 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 34 of 1734 occurrencesDevonian — about 7 of 1734 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 2 of 1734 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 1734 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 1734 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 1734 occurrences548–532 Mya — about 3 occurrences532–515 Mya — about 34 occurrences515–499 Mya — about 429 occurrences499–483 Mya — about 517 occurrences483–466 Mya — about 257 occurrences466–450 Mya — about 325 occurrences450–434 Mya — about 154 occurrences434–417 Mya — about 5 occurrences401–384 Mya — about 5 occurrences384–368 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences368–352 Mya — about 1 occurrence352–335 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence516 Mya72.2 Mya548 Mya57 Mya

1,734 occurrences of Acrotretida 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

1,734 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

271 formations

Zhumabai — 43.53°N, 69.95°ERiley — 30.64°N, 99.26°WRiley — 30.92°N, 98.61°WRiley — 30.81°N, 98.28°WRiley — 30.91°N, 99.00°WRiley — 30.76°N, 99.41°WRiley — 30.54°N, 99.09°WRiley — 30.49°N, 98.52°WRiley — 30.81°N, 98.37°WRiley — 30.62°N, 98.51°WRiley — 30.90°N, 98.43°WRiley — 30.36°N, 98.47°WValhallfonna — 79.00°N, 18.00°EValhallfonna — 79.85°N, 17.67°EBestogai — 43.53°N, 69.95°EBestogai — 43.62°N, 69.94°EBestogai — 43.63°N, 69.99°E"Dolodrook River Limestone" — 37.60°S, 146.63°EForteau — 51.47°N, 56.84°WForteau — 51.00°N, 56.66°WForteau — 50.98°N, 56.85°WForteau — 49.52°N, 57.82°WJonstorp — 58.36°N, 25.57°ESarykumy — 46.98°N, 74.13°ESeby Limestone — 62.97°N, 14.48°EEmanuel — 18.65°S, 125.92°EÜlgase — 59.43°N, 24.73°EÜlgase — 59.46°N, 24.91°EÜlgase — 59.48°N, 25.02°EÜlgase — 59.48°N, 25.34°EÜlgase — 59.51°N, 25.50°EÜlgase — 59.45°N, 25.67°EÜlgase — 59.34°N, 26.52°EÜlgase — 59.49°N, 25.09°EÜlgase — 59.43°N, 24.99°EFillmore — 38.87°N, 113.35°WFillmore — 38.78°N, 113.65°WSlandrom — 58.38°N, 13.82°ESlandrom — 58.17°N, 13.53°ESlandrom — 58.45°N, 14.89°ESlandrom — 58.00°N, 13.00°ESlandrom — 58.48°N, 13.10°ESlandrom — 60.92°N, 15.09°ETinu — 17.37°N, 97.17°WTinu — 17.53°N, 97.12°WGullhögen — 58.38°N, 13.82°EDalby Limestone — 62.97°N, 14.48°EDalby Limestone — 60.92°N, 15.09°EFolkeslunda Limestone — 62.97°N, 14.48°EHouse — 38.88°N, 113.44°WHouse — 39.05°N, 113.38°WHouse — 38.87°N, 113.35°WHouse — 38.70°N, 113.52°WFurudal — 62.97°N, 14.48°EFurudal — 60.92°N, 15.09°EAktas — 43.53°N, 69.95°ETindall Limestone — 13.33°S, 130.63°ETindall Limestone — 13.50°S, 131.07°ETindall Limestone — 13.88°S, 131.15°ETindall Limestone — 13.82°S, 131.35°ETindall Limestone — 14.25°S, 131.38°ETindall Limestone — 14.50°S, 132.17°ETindall Limestone — 14.42°S, 132.33°ETindall Limestone — 13.68°S, 131.33°ETindall Limestone — 13.55°S, 131.18°EBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.03°N, 115.83°WBurgess Shale — 51.39°N, 116.43°WMalongulli — 33.55°S, 148.85°EMalongulli — 34.00°S, 148.00°EMalongulli — 33.10°S, 148.87°EMalongulli — 33.54°S, 148.89°EMalongulli — 33.56°S, 148.85°ERyd Limestone — 58.38°N, 13.82°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acrotretida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 247 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 89 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acrotretida and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Acrotretida and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

1,488 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 859 sites for Acrotretida, and this reads 240 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

247 references

Each of the 1,734 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. 235 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 Acrotretida

Credit
Zhiliang Zhang, Zhifei Zhang, Lars E. Holmer & Feiyang Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itLingulata through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kuhn 1949