Cryptolithus tessellatus

A picture published with the record for Cryptolithus tessellatus. What it shows has not been checked.

Smithsonian Institution · CC0 · via Smithsonian. 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
CryptolithusPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Trinucleidae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
blindPBDB, for Cryptolithus
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 1.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 451 Mya to 449.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 458.2 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Ordovician — about 63 of 63 occurrencesOrdovician458–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 1 occurrence454–453 Mya — about 2 occurrences453–453 Mya — about 2 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 2 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 12 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 22 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 9 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 3 occurrences449–449 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences447–447 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451 Mya – 449.6 Mya458.7 Mya444.7 Mya

63 occurrences of Cryptolithus tessellatus 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

63 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

14 formations

Kope — 39.03°N, 84.42°WKope — 39.06°N, 84.44°WKope — 39.03°N, 84.54°WKope — 38.79°N, 84.21°WMartinsburg — 38.51°N, 78.63°WMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°WMartinsburg — 38.52°N, 78.89°WMartinsburg — 38.30°N, 78.01°WMartinsburg — 38.25°N, 79.05°WMartinsburg — 41.74°N, 74.18°WClays Ferry — 38.31°N, 84.85°WSugar River Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WSugar River Limestone — 43.00°N, 75.00°WLorraine — 46.20°N, 72.33°WLorraine — 46.22°N, 72.62°WLorraine — 45.79°N, 72.86°WLorraine — 45.45°N, 73.04°WLexington Limestone — 38.22°N, 84.86°WNicolet River — 46.00°N, 72.00°WNicolet River — 45.66°N, 72.93°WWhitby — 44.53°N, 80.38°WUtica Shale — 43.21°N, 75.46°WVaureal — 49.50°N, 63.00°WSheguiandah — 44.59°N, 80.56°WEden — 39.09°N, 84.50°WLorraine — 43.56°N, 76.11°WEden Shale — 39.93°N, 78.00°W

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The named rock units Cryptolithus tessellatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cryptolithus tessellatus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Cryptolithus tessellatus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

294 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 60 sites for Cryptolithus tessellatus, 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

15 references

Each of the 63 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. 3 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 Cryptolithus tessellatus

Source
Smithsonian
Credit
Smithsonian Institution
Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCryptolithus through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Green 1832