Chancia

Chancia is an extinct genus of Cambrian trilobite. It was a "fast-moving epifaunal detritivore" from Canada and the United States. Chancia was a particle feeder. Its major characteristics are a normal glabella but an enlarged cephalon due to a pre-glabellar field in front of the glabella, as well as developed eye ridges, medium-sized genal spines, and an extremely small pygidium.

Chancia

Chris Woodrich · 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
AlokistocaridaePBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
fast-movingPBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Alokistocaridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 497 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 515.3 Mya to 486.85 Mya.

Cambrian — about 33 of 33 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 33 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 4 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 7 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 7 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 6 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 3 occurrences504–503 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences501–500 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences500–499 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences497–496 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences496–495 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences495–494 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences494–493 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences493–492 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences492–491 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences491–490 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences490–489 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences489–488 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences488–487 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences487–486 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences509.7 Mya497 Mya515.9 Mya486.3 Mya

33 occurrences of Chancia 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

33 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

13 formations

Shallow Bay — 49.25°N, 65.57°WCarrara — 39.16°N, 119.83°WCarrara — 37.35°N, 116.13°WCarrara — 37.45°N, 115.73°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°WLangston — 42.19°N, 112.25°WPioche Shale — 40.00°N, 115.00°WMount Whyte — 52.83°N, 119.25°WStephen — 52.83°N, 119.25°WWheeler Shale — 39.36°N, 111.59°WKinzers — 39.96°N, 76.73°WParker Slate — 44.48°N, 73.21°WEmigrant — 37.79°N, 117.44°WMt. Whyte — 51.42°N, 116.45°WMount Cap — 64.94°N, 127.26°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Chancia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Chancia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

195 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Chancia, 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

14 references

Each of the 33 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. 2 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 Chancia

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

No 3D scan of Chancia 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 itAlokistocaridae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1924