Cyclopygidae

Cyclopygidae is a family of asaphid trilobites from the Ordovician. Cyclopygids had an extratropical distribution, and there is evidence that they lived in darker parts of the water column. Cyclopygids are characterized by enlarged eyes, with a wide angle of view, both horizontal and vertical, reminiscent of the eyes of dragonflies. These typically touch the glabella directly on the side. Cyclopygids all lack genal spines, but Symphysops carries a forward directed frontal spine on the glabella. It is presumed that at least the members of the genus Pricyclopyge swam upside down and had bioluminescent organs on the third thorax segment. Cyclopygids had between 7 and 5 thorax segments, a wide and stout axis, and short side lobes.

Cyclopygidae

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
CyclopygoideaPBDB
Diet
microcarnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 448.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 314 occurrencesOrdovician — about 314 of 314 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 314 occurrences488–486 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences486–485 Mya — about 2 occurrences485–483 Mya — about 2 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 2 occurrences482–480 Mya — about 3 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 3 occurrences479–477 Mya — about 3 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 6 occurrences476–474 Mya — about 7 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 7 occurrences473–471 Mya — about 7 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 9 occurrences470–468 Mya — about 8 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 9 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 9 occurrences465–463 Mya — about 9 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 10 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 14 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 16 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 14 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 17 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 17 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 18 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 14 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 16 occurrences450–448 Mya — about 26 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 26 occurrences447–445 Mya — about 26 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 10 occurrences444–442 Mya — about 4 occurrences477.1 Mya448.8 Mya487.7 Mya442.2 Mya

314 occurrences of Cyclopygidae 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

314 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

74 formations

Llanfallteg — 52.00°N, 5.00°WLlanfallteg — 51.82°N, 4.57°WLlanfallteg — 51.82°N, 4.48°WLlanfallteg — 51.83°N, 4.65°WLlanfallteg — 51.83°N, 4.77°WLlanfallteg — 51.85°N, 4.92°WGrande Coupe — 48.54°N, 64.25°WDomusnovas — 40.34°N, 8.69°EDomusnovas — 39.33°N, 8.67°EDomusnovas — 39.44°N, 8.42°EDomusnovas — 39.44°N, 8.51°EDomusnovas — 39.24°N, 8.49°ETangtou — 32.00°N, 118.00°ETangtou — 30.00°N, 116.00°ETangtou — 32.00°N, 119.00°ETangtou — 32.07°N, 119.26°ESarka — 50.00°N, 14.00°ESarka — 50.08°N, 14.75°ESarka — 49.77°N, 13.62°ESarka — 50.18°N, 14.65°EPontyfenni — 52.00°N, 5.00°WKanling — 40.64°N, 79.50°EBaota — 32.00°N, 107.00°EBaota — 29.00°N, 110.00°EBaota — 29.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 30.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 31.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 118.00°EBaota — 30.00°N, 116.00°EBaota — 33.00°N, 106.00°ESaergan — 40.64°N, 79.50°ELiben — 50.00°N, 14.00°ELiben — 50.10°N, 14.45°ELiben — 50.03°N, 14.30°ELiben — 49.80°N, 13.63°EVinice — 50.00°N, 14.00°EWhite Head — 48.47°N, 64.32°WWhite Head — 48.50°N, 64.23°WQilang — 40.64°N, 79.50°EDobrotivá — 50.10°N, 14.34°EDobrotivá — 50.00°N, 14.00°EHuangnigang — 29.00°N, 115.00°EHuangnigang — 28.00°N, 118.00°EHuangnigang — 30.00°N, 120.00°EHuangnigang — 29.00°N, 119.00°EJerrestad Shale — 57.78°N, 14.18°EJerrestad Shale — 55.54°N, 14.29°EKaragach — 47.99°N, 80.91°EPyle Mountain Argillite — 46.68°N, 68.22°WZahorany — 50.00°N, 14.00°EKraluv Dvur — 50.00°N, 14.00°ELinxiang — 33.00°N, 111.00°ELinxiang — 29.00°N, 110.00°ELinxiang — 30.00°N, 111.00°EYanwashan — 29.00°N, 115.00°EYanwashan — 28.00°N, 118.00°EYanwashan — 31.00°N, 120.00°EVolcancito — 29.33°S, 67.80°WKomstad — 55.04°N, 14.88°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cyclopygidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 50 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 32 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cyclopygidae and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Cyclopygidae and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,415 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 196 sites for Cyclopygidae, 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

70 references

Each of the 314 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. 58 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 Cyclopygidae

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

No 3D scan of Cyclopygidae 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

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 itCyclopygoidea through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Raymond 1925