Agnostus

Agnostus is a genus of agnostid trilobites, belonging to the family Agnostidae, that lived during the late Middle Cambrian – Upper Cambrian. It is the type genus of the family Agnostidae and is subdivided into two subgenera, Agnostus and Homagnostus.

Agnostus

Dwergenpaartje · CC BY-SA 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
AgnostidaePBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB, for Agnostida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Agnostida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Agnostida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Agnostidae

Time the record covers

At least 60 million years on record.

The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 449.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 94 of 105 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 11 of 105 occurrencesOrdovician541–537 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences537–534 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences534–531 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences531–528 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences528–524 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences524–521 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences521–518 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences518–515 Mya — about 1 occurrence515–511 Mya — about 2 occurrences511–508 Mya — about 2 occurrences508–505 Mya — about 5 occurrences505–502 Mya — about 9 occurrences502–498 Mya — about 13 occurrences498–495 Mya — about 25 occurrences495–492 Mya — about 23 occurrences492–489 Mya — about 4 occurrences489–486 Mya — about 3 occurrences486–482 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences482–479 Mya — about 1 occurrence479–476 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences476–473 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences473–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–450 Mya — about 2 occurrences450–447 Mya — about 4 occurrences447–443 Mya — about 2 occurrences509.7 Mya449.5 Mya541 Mya443 Mya

105 occurrences of Agnostus 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

105 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

28 formations

Zhumabai — 43.53°N, 69.95°EHuaqiao — 28.39°N, 109.53°EHuaqiao — 28.05°N, 109.42°EHuaqiao — 29.13°N, 110.95°EHolm Dal — 82.42°N, 39.75°WRabbitkettle — 64.67°N, 132.00°WRabbitkettle — 62.70°N, 128.38°WAlum Shale — 59.00°N, 9.70°EAlum Shale — 59.27°N, 9.54°EAlum Shale — 59.58°N, 9.65°EAlum Shale — 60.78°N, 10.82°EAlum Shale — 58.55°N, 13.33°EAlum Shale — 56.35°N, 16.42°EKinzers — 39.96°N, 76.73°WKlonowka Shale — 50.88°N, 20.95°EAktas — 43.53°N, 69.95°ELangston — 42.19°N, 112.25°WWheeler Shale — 39.36°N, 111.59°WDeadwood — 44.42°N, 103.71°WPerekhod — 51.97°N, 85.97°EMarjum and Weeks — 39.22°N, 113.45°WDunderburg — 39.43°N, 114.74°WEmpozada — 32.88°S, 68.82°WJince — 49.78°N, 13.98°ENinemile — 39.00°N, 116.00°WZhangxia — 34.85°N, 117.33°EBaguamiao — 32.22°N, 108.42°EKulyumbe — 68.00°N, 88.82°ELongha — 23.26°N, 105.54°EKap Stanton — 80.25°N, 62.50°WMariner Group Spurs — 71.38°S, 162.83°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Agnostus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Agnostus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Agnostus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

397 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Agnostus, 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

37 references

Each of the 105 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. 25 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 Agnostus

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAgnostidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brongniart 1822