Cyphaspis

Cyphaspis is a genus of small, proetid trilobite that lived from the Late Ordovician to the Late Devonian. Fossils have been found in marine strata in what is now Europe, Africa and North America. Various species had a compact body, and a large, bulbous glabellum. Many species had long spines arranged similarly to closely related genera, such as Otarian, Otarionella, Chamaeleoaspis, and Namuropyge.

Cyphaspis

Jonathan Chen · 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
OtarioniniPBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Proetida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 471.3 Mya to 375.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 475.3 Mya to 372.15 Mya.

Ordovician — about 11 of 128 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 13 of 128 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 104 of 128 occurrencesDevonian477–474 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences474–470 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences459–456 Mya — about 2 occurrences456–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–449 Mya — about 3 occurrences449–445 Mya — about 2 occurrences445–442 Mya — about 2 occurrences442–438 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences438–434 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences434–431 Mya — about 3 occurrences431–427 Mya — about 5 occurrences427–424 Mya — about 3 occurrences424–420 Mya — about 1 occurrence420–417 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences417–413 Mya — about 1 occurrence413–409 Mya — about 20 occurrences409–406 Mya — about 5 occurrences406–402 Mya — about 5 occurrences402–399 Mya — about 6 occurrences399–395 Mya — about 9 occurrences395–392 Mya — about 18 occurrences392–388 Mya — about 25 occurrences388–384 Mya — about 5 occurrences384–381 Mya — about 3 occurrences381–377 Mya — about 1 occurrence377–374 Mya — about 2 occurrences374–370 Mya — about 1 occurrence471.3 Mya375.2 Mya477 Mya370 Mya

128 occurrences of Cyphaspis on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

128 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

57 formations

Jemelle — 50.16°N, 5.26°EJemelle — 50.05°N, 4.47°EJemelle — 49.98°N, 4.70°EJemelle — 50.26°N, 5.47°ETimrhanrhart — 29.71°N, 6.70°WTimrhanrhart — 29.93°N, 7.05°WZlichov Limestone — 50.00°N, 14.00°EZlichov Limestone — 49.50°N, 14.33°EIhandar — 30.84°N, 4.92°WAhrdorf — 50.22°N, 6.70°EChefar el Ahmar — 29.56°N, 2.15°WChotec — 50.08°N, 14.43°EChotec — 49.50°N, 14.33°EDelorme — 62.40°N, 127.00°WDelorme — 62.78°N, 125.25°WBoda Limestone — 60.97°N, 15.15°EBoda Limestone — 61.17°N, 14.71°EBoda Limestone — 61.02°N, 15.22°EOhle — 51.29°N, 8.04°EOhle — 51.28°N, 8.08°EHanonet — 50.09°N, 5.18°ECelechovice Limestone — 49.57°N, 17.25°ERead Bay — 75.00°N, 95.00°WRead Bay — 75.25°N, 95.00°WKellerwand — 46.50°N, 13.00°ELittle Cedar — 41.83°N, 90.23°WKimmswick limestone — 39.05°N, 90.66°WKimmswick limestone — 38.32°N, 90.38°WKhodzhakurgan — 39.21°N, 67.38°EEl Otfal — 30.97°N, 5.03°WEl Otfal — 31.09°N, 4.90°WKhebchia — 28.52°N, 9.40°WMeinkenbracht — 51.28°N, 8.08°EBicken-Ense — 50.60°N, 8.25°EGrands Breux — 50.67°N, 5.38°EGrands Breux — 50.07°N, 4.47°EHaragan — 34.50°N, 96.50°WBois d'Arc — 34.50°N, 96.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cyphaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cyphaspis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Cyphaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

1,559 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 97 sites for Cyphaspis, 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

52 references

Each of the 128 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. 40 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 Cyphaspis

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

No 3D scan of Cyphaspis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itOtarionini through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Burmeister 1843)