Dicranurus

Dicranurus is a genus of Lower to Middle Devonian odontopleurid trilobites that lived in a shallow sea that lay between Euramerica and Gondwana, corresponding to modern-day Oklahoma and New York, and Morocco, respectively. As such, their fossils are found in New York, Oklahoma, and Morocco. Their bodies averaged about 1 in (25 mm) or so, in length, though their large spines made them at least 2 in (51 mm) in length. Such tremendous spines may have hampered the ability of predators, such as arthrodire placoderms, to attack them, and to help prevent them from sinking into the soft mud of their environment. Dicranurus trilobites are distinguished from other odontopleurids by the pair of large, curled, horn-like spines that emanate from behind the glabellum. The genus name refers to its distinctive horns.

Dicranurus

Daderot · CC0 · 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
OdontopleuridaePBDB
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 least 45 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 413.02 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 461.1 Mya to 382.31 Mya.

Ordovician — about 1 of 22 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 22 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 21 of 22 occurrencesDevonian463–460 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences460–457 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences424–422 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences422–419 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences419–416 Mya — about 1 occurrence416–414 Mya — about 1 occurrence414–411 Mya — about 14 occurrences411–408 Mya — about 1 occurrence408–405 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences405–403 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences403–400 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences400–397 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences397–394 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences394–392 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences392–389 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences389–386 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences386–383 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences383–381 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458.2 Mya413.02 Mya463 Mya381 Mya

22 occurrences of Dicranurus 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

22 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

12 formations

Garra — 32.58°S, 148.95°EHaragan — 34.50°N, 96.50°WBois d'Arc — 34.50°N, 96.50°WVinarice Limestone — 50.00°N, 14.00°EBou Regreg Limestone — 34.03°N, 6.85°WRechoua Limestone — 34.03°N, 6.85°WGhtira Limestone — 34.03°N, 6.85°WMegrane Shale — 31.90°N, 3.13°WIhandar — 30.84°N, 4.92°WShihtzupu — 27.76°N, 106.92°ESlivenec Limestone — 49.99°N, 14.33°EPraha — 49.42°N, 15.86°E

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The named rock units Dicranurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dicranurus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Dicranurus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

354 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Dicranurus, 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

10 references

Each of the 22 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 content2

Picture of Dicranurus

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOdontopleuridae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad 1841