Branchiocaris

Branchiocaris is an extinct genus of Cambrian bivalved arthropod. The type and best known species, Branchiocaris pretiosa, was described from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, in 1929, originally placed in Protocaris, and was placed into its own distinct genus by Briggs in 1976. Several other possible species have been described from Cambrian deposits in China, and it is also possibly known from Cambrian deposits in Utah.

Branchiocaris

Charles Elmer Resser · Public Domain · 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
HymenostracaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 36 of 36 occurrencesCambrian522–521 Mya — about 1 occurrence521–520 Mya — about 4 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 4 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 4 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 4 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 4 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 3 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 1 occurrence506–505 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences504–503 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences502–502 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences501–500 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences500–499 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences497–497 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences516 Mya504.5 Mya521.5 Mya496.5 Mya

36 occurrences of Branchiocaris 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

36 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

9 formations

Yu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 25.40°N, 103.38°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 25.72°N, 103.99°EYuanshan — 24.00°N, 102.00°EBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.39°N, 116.43°WMarjum — 39.00°N, 113.00°WMarjum — 39.25°N, 113.36°WMarjum — 39.27°N, 113.31°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°WWheeler — 39.40°N, 113.28°WWulongqing — 24.95°N, 102.80°EStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WShuijingtuo — 30.50°N, 111.16°E

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

Branchiocaris and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Branchiocaris and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

474 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Branchiocaris, 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

16 references

Each of the 36 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. 4 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 Branchiocaris

Credit
Charles Elmer Resser
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Branchiocaris was found in Sketchfab.

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 itHymenostraca through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Briggs 1976