Bulbaspis

Bulbaspis is a late Ordovician genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae found primarily in upper Ordovician-aged deepwater marine strata of Kazakhstan, China, and possibly Tasmania. Species of Bulbaspis are similar to other raphiophorids such as Ampyx and Raphiophorus, save that the long spine that emanates from the glabella of the latter two genera has been modified into a knob-like or bulb-like structure in Bulbaspis that developed incrementally in the animal's growth. The function of the bulb is currently unknown: one hypothesis suggests sexual selection may have had a role in its evolution in the genus.

Bulbaspis

Apokryltaros · 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
RaphiophorinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
blindPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 9.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 458.2 Mya and 449 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 3 of 3 occurrencesOrdovician458–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–458 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences452–452 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences452–452 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences449–449 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences458.7 Mya448.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Bulbaspis 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

3 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

2 formations

Chedao — 36.08°N, 106.75°EBadainjaran — 41.65°N, 102.60°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Bulbaspis 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.

Bulbaspis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Bulbaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

35 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Bulbaspis, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Bulbaspis

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

No 3D scan of Bulbaspis 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 itRaphiophorinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Chugaeva 1956