Composita
Searched as Composita trilobata. The Paleobiology Database treats Composita as the accepted name.
Composita is an extinct brachiopod genus that lived from the Late Devonian to the Late Permian. Composita had a cosmopolitan global distribution, having lived on every continent except Antarctica. Composita had a smooth shell with a more or less distinct fold and sulcus and a round opening for the pedicle on the pedicle valve. Composita is included in the family Athyrididae and placed in the subfamily Spirigerellinae.

Ryan shell · 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
- SpirigerellinaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Athyrididina
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Athyrididina
- Motility
- stationaryPBDB, for Athyrididina
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 19 million years on record.
The record covers at least 323.4 Mya to 303.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 298.9 Mya.
14 occurrences of Composita on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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
14 occurrences- Carboniferous100%
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
- Ely Limestone Formation6
- Hogan Formation5
- Illipah Formation1
- Elephant Canyon Formation1
- Bird Spring Formation1
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The named rock units Composita has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Composita and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Composita and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
743 taxa- Neospirifer dunbari83 sites
- Neochonetes granulifer57 sites
- Hustedia mormoni47 sites
- Crinoidea45 sites
- Derbyia42 sites
- Parajuresania nebrascensis41 sites
- Reticulatia huecoensis39 sites
- Rhombopora38 sites
- Hystriculina wabashensis36 sites
- Desmoinesia muricatina35 sites
- Spirifer35 sites
- Fenestella34 sites
- Punctospirifer33 sites
- Punctospirifer kentuckensis31 sites
- Crurithyris planoconvexa29 sites
- Fistulipora28 sites
- Brachiopoda27 sites
- Crurithyris27 sites
- Cystodictya27 sites
- Polypora27 sites
- Kutorginella lasallensis26 sites
- Linipalus magnispinus26 sites
- Meekella26 sites
- Linoproductus prattenianus25 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,737 sites for Composita, and this reads 240 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
5 references- Pennsylvanian sea level cycles, nutrient availability and brachiopod paleoecology6
- First Record of Post-Middle Desmoinesian (Late Carboniferous) Brachiopods in the Great Basin (USA): Implications for Faunal Migration in Response to Late Paleozoic Paleogeography5
- Preliminary report of the brachiopod fauna, Arrow Canyon section, southern Nevada, U.S.A.1
- Lateral facies and paleoecology of Permian Elephant Canyon Formation, Grand County, Utah1
- Geology of the Northern Needle Range Millard County, Utah1
Each of the 14 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 Composita
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ryan shell
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Composita was found in Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Composita”
- 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 itSpirigerellinae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brown 1849)