Carcinosoma

Carcinosoma is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Carcinosoma are likely restricted to deposits of late Silurian to early Devonian age, although an Early Ordovician specimen has been classified as ?Carcinosoma aurorae, which would make this the earliest known eurypterid genus. Classified as part of the family Carcinosomatidae, which the genus lends its name to, Carcinosoma contains several species from North America and Great Britain.

Carcinosoma

Paul S. Mayer · CC0 · 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
CarcinosomatidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 410.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 393.47 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 20 occurrencesSilurian — about 17 of 20 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 3 of 20 occurrencesDevonian444–442 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences442–441 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences441–439 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences439–437 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences437–435 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences435–434 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences434–432 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences432–430 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences430–429 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences429–427 Mya — about 2 occurrences427–425 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences425–423 Mya — about 3 occurrences423–422 Mya — about 2 occurrences422–420 Mya — about 2 occurrences420–418 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences410–408 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences408–406 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences406–405 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences405–403 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences403–401 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences401–399 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences399–398 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences398–396 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences396–394 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences394–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432.9 Mya410.62 Mya444 Mya392 Mya

20 occurrences of Carcinosoma on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

20 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

16 formations

Syracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.00°WReservoir — 56.00°N, 3.00°WReservoir — 55.81°N, 3.35°WBear Rock — 68.18°N, 125.84°WFiddlers Green — 42.85°N, 78.80°WKokomo — 40.48°N, 86.13°WSt. Edmund — 45.83°N, 82.33°WGuelph — 43.55°N, 80.25°WWabash — 40.48°N, 86.18°WVernon Shale — 43.08°N, 77.52°WAllen Bay — 76.00°N, 90.00°WKip Burn — 55.65°N, 3.92°WLeintwardine — 52.38°N, 2.85°WWhitcliffe — 52.37°N, 2.72°WRootsikula — 58.42°N, 22.50°EAcacus Sandstone — 24.97°N, 10.18°EBertie Limestone — 43.00°N, 76.03°W

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The named rock units Carcinosoma 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.

Carcinosoma and its relatives

Silurian

Where Carcinosoma and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

226 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Carcinosoma, 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

10 references

Each of the 20 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. 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 Carcinosoma

Credit
Paul S. Mayer
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Carcinosoma 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 itCarcinosomatidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Claypole 1890