Coeloptychium

Coeloptychium is an extinct genus of lychniscosidan hexasterophoran sea sponge which has often been used as an index fossil. Its remains have been found in Cretaceous sediments in Germany, Belgium, France and the UK. Coeloptyhcium is best preserved in Campanian sediments in Germany. The type species, C. agaricoides, was named in 1826.

Coeloptychium

Ghedo · 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
CoeloptychinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Lychniscosa
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Lychniscosa
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Lychniscosa
Vision
blindPBDB, for Hexactinellida
Environment
marinePBDB, for Hexactinellida

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 51 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 50 of 51 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 51 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 4 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 6 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 6 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 6 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 6 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 6 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 4 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110.1 Mya72.2 Mya114.1 Mya65.1 Mya

51 occurrences of Coeloptychium on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

51 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

5 formations

White Limestone — 55.22°N, 6.40°WIlsenburg — 51.90°N, 10.67°EAhlen — 51.72°N, 7.93°ESewerby Rocks — 54.10°N, 0.15°WUpper Chalk — 50.65°N, 1.57°W

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The named rock units Coeloptychium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 40 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Coeloptychium and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Coeloptychium and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

356 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Coeloptychium, 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 51 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 content2

Picture of Coeloptychium

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itCoeloptychinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Goldfuss 1826