Cnemidopyge

Cnemidopyge is a genus of trilobites that lived during the Ordovician. Like all Raphiophorids it is blind, with a cephalon that is subtriangular to subsemicircular, carrying genal spines and a forward directed rapier-like spine on the central raised area, with the front of the glabella inflated and the natural fracture lines of the cephalon coinciding with its margin. It may be easily distinguished from other raphiophorids by the rectangular thorax with 6 segments, where other genera have a different number of segments and segments change in width over the length of the thorax. Uniquely in this genus, the inner pleural region of the frontal segment is enlarged. Also the axis and pleural fields of the pygidium are strongly segmented.

Cnemidopyge

Dwergenpaartje · 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
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 least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 468 Mya to 458 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 477.1 Mya to 449.5 Mya.

Ordovician — about 22 of 22 occurrencesOrdovician478–477 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences475–474 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 3 occurrences459–459 Mya — about 3 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 2 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 1 occurrence457–456 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences468 Mya458 Mya477.7 Mya448.9 Mya

22 occurrences of Cnemidopyge 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

22 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

10 formations

Road River — 64.50°N, 130.00°WRoad River — 65.22°N, 136.68°WCyffredm Shale — 51.80°N, 4.63°WCyffredm Shale — 51.78°N, 4.67°WLlanfallteg — 51.85°N, 4.92°WLlanfawr Mudstone — 52.23°N, 3.37°WDuo Lake — 64.32°N, 129.67°WDalby — 58.00°N, 14.00°ESegerstad Limestone — 61.00°N, 15.00°EMytton Flags and Tankerville — 53.00°N, 3.00°WTankerville — 53.00°N, 3.00°WSularp — 55.71°N, 13.32°E

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The named rock units Cnemidopyge has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cnemidopyge and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Cnemidopyge and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

199 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Cnemidopyge, 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

12 references

Each of the 22 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 Cnemidopyge

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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. Whittard 1955