Diacanthaspis decacantha

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- DiacanthaspisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Odontopleuridae
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Odontopleuridae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At most 4.3 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 449.5 Mya and 445.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Diacanthaspis decacantha 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
2 occurrences- Ordovician100%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Diacanthaspis decacantha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Diacanthaspis decacantha and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Diacanthaspis decacantha and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
49 taxa- Aegiria1 site
- Allolichas glenos1 site
- Amphitryon murchisonii1 site
- Anisopleurella1 site
- Arthrorhachis1 site
- Bronteopsis1 site
- Calyptaulax norvegicus1 site
- Ceraurinella intermedia1 site
- Christiania1 site
- Cybeloides (Paracybeloides) girvanensis1 site
- Cyclopyge1 site
- Dalmanella1 site
- Dicoelosia1 site
- Dindymene ornata1 site
- Dolerorthis1 site
- Duftonia1 site
- Encrinuroides sexcostatus1 site
- Glyptorthis1 site
- Harpes1 site
- Howellites1 site
- Illaenus1 site
- Leangella1 site
- Lonchodomas tumidus1 site
- Nankinolithus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Diacanthaspis decacantha, 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
2 references- The Ordovician trilobites of the Bala Area, Merioneth. Part IV1
- A Revision of the Swedish Ordovician Odontopleuridae (Trilobita)1
Each of the 2 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 Diacanthaspis decacantha
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Diacanthaspis decacantha 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itDiacanthaspis through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Angelin 1854