Cephalaspis

Cephalaspis is a possibly monotypic genus of extinct osteostracan agnathan vertebrate. It was a trout-sized detritivorous fish that lived in the early Devonian.

Cephalaspis

Rod6807 · 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
CephalaspididaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 419.62 Mya to 410.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 422.7 Mya to 393.47 Mya.

Silurian — about 2 of 42 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 40 of 42 occurrencesDevonian423–422 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences422–421 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences421–420 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences420–419 Mya — about 2 occurrences419–418 Mya — about 5 occurrences418–417 Mya — about 5 occurrences417–416 Mya — about 4 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 4 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 4 occurrences414–413 Mya — about 4 occurrences413–412 Mya — about 2 occurrences412–411 Mya — about 2 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 1 occurrence410–409 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences409–408 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences408–407 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences407–406 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences406–405 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences405–404 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences404–403 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences403–402 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences402–401 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences401–400 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences400–399 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences399–398 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences398–397 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences396–395 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences395–394 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences419.62 Mya410.62 Mya423.3 Mya392.9 Mya

42 occurrences of Cephalaspis on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

42 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

20 formations

Fraenkelryggen — 79.67°N, 12.37°EKnoydart — 45.62°N, 61.97°WKnoydart — 45.72°N, 62.20°WDundee Flagstone — 57.00°N, 4.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.61°N, 3.00°WDundee Flagstone — 56.67°N, 2.77°WBen Nevis — 79.63°N, 12.29°EBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°WBeartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WDelorme — 62.55°N, 127.75°WPeel Sound — 73.79°N, 98.58°WPeel Sound — 73.78°N, 98.47°WFreshwater West — 52.48°N, 2.64°WFreshwater West — 51.83°N, 3.00°WSenni Beds — 51.86°N, 2.97°WDniester — 48.86°N, 25.48°EDniester — 48.69°N, 25.62°EChortkov — 48.63°N, 25.73°EBattery Point — 48.82°N, 64.46°WOld Red Sandstone — 51.86°N, 2.73°WLapes — 55.27°N, 24.81°ESt Maughans — 52.13°N, 2.43°WSnowblind — 75.07°N, 93.57°WPsammosteus Limestone — 52.53°N, 2.48°WScone Sandstone — 56.16°N, 3.95°WDownton — 52.21°N, 3.04°WIvanie — 48.72°N, 25.63°E

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The named rock units Cephalaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cephalaspis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cephalaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

257 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Cephalaspis, 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 42 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 content2

Picture of Cephalaspis

Credit
Rod6807
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

MorphoSource 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 itCephalaspididae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1835