Dictyonema

Dictyonema is a genus of dendroid graptolite. While initially thought to be a bridge between dendroid and graptoloid graptolites due to its seeming to possess dissepiments, Dictyonema is now understood to be an acanthograptid with a unique style of 'thecal bridges' where thecae from one stipe cross over to adjacent stipes.

Dictyonema

Published by Maletz, J. · CC BY 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
AcanthograptidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Dendroidea
Life habit
planktonicPBDB
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Dendroidea
Vision
blindPBDB, for Graptolithina

Time the record covers

At least 106 million years on record.

The record covers at least 494.2 Mya to 387.95 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 497 Mya to 382.31 Mya.

Cambrian — about 8 of 199 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 119 of 199 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 54 of 199 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 19 of 199 occurrencesDevonian499–495 Mya — about 2 occurrences495–491 Mya — about 3 occurrences491–487 Mya — about 3 occurrences487–483 Mya — about 26 occurrences483–479 Mya — about 27 occurrences479–475 Mya — about 20 occurrences475–471 Mya — about 10 occurrences471–467 Mya — about 6 occurrences467–464 Mya — about 2 occurrences464–460 Mya — about 2 occurrences460–456 Mya — about 3 occurrences456–452 Mya — about 5 occurrences452–448 Mya — about 11 occurrences448–444 Mya — about 7 occurrences444–440 Mya — about 6 occurrences440–436 Mya — about 13 occurrences436–432 Mya — about 14 occurrences432–428 Mya — about 11 occurrences428–424 Mya — about 5 occurrences424–420 Mya — about 5 occurrences420–416 Mya — about 4 occurrences416–412 Mya — about 3 occurrences412–408 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences408–404 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences404–400 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences400–396 Mya — about 2 occurrences396–392 Mya — about 2 occurrences392–388 Mya — about 1 occurrence388–384 Mya — about 4 occurrences384–380 Mya — about 2 occurrences494.2 Mya387.95 Mya499 Mya380 Mya

199 occurrences of Dictyonema 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

199 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

111 formations

Yeli — 40.00°N, 118.00°EYeli — 40.00°N, 119.00°EYeli — 37.00°N, 114.00°EYeli — 40.00°N, 114.00°EYeli — 42.00°N, 127.00°EYeli — 42.00°N, 126.00°EFengxiang — 33.00°N, 111.00°EFengxiang — 29.00°N, 110.00°EFengxiang — 30.00°N, 111.00°EFengxiang — 31.00°N, 111.00°EFengxiang — 32.00°N, 118.00°EWilliamson Shale — 43.22°N, 77.19°WWilliamson Shale — 43.00°N, 78.00°WWilliamson Shale — 43.00°N, 77.00°WWilliamson Shale — 43.00°N, 76.00°WWilliamson Shale — 43.00°N, 75.00°WWilliamson — 43.23°N, 77.21°WWilliamson — 43.23°N, 76.30°WWilliamson — 43.24°N, 76.14°WDeadwood — 47.42°N, 105.59°WGuotang — 26.00°N, 108.00°ELochkov — 49.50°N, 14.33°ELochkov — 49.93°N, 14.18°ERochester — 43.16°N, 79.05°WRochester — 43.18°N, 78.72°WRochester — 43.19°N, 77.56°WRochester — 43.22°N, 77.02°WRochester — 43.25°N, 76.64°WWillowvale — 43.04°N, 75.36°WWillowvale — 43.03°N, 75.28°WUkhrinskaya — 58.41°N, 37.53°ENanjinguan — 33.00°N, 111.00°ENanjinguan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EMadaoyu — 29.00°N, 111.00°EMadaoyu — 28.78°N, 109.84°EYinzhupu — 29.00°N, 115.00°EYinzhupu — 28.00°N, 118.00°EYinzhupu — 30.00°N, 120.00°EDaleje Shale — 50.04°N, 14.39°EUst’Kut — 60.00°N, 116.00°EUst’Kut — 61.00°N, 114.00°ERacine Dolomite — 42.00°N, 88.00°WAntelope Valley — 39.09°N, 116.85°WAntelope Valley — 38.05°N, 116.45°WRochester Shale — 43.15°N, 77.62°WRochester Shale — 43.17°N, 78.68°WDawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 111.00°ELunshan — 32.00°N, 119.00°ELunshan — 32.00°N, 118.00°EPozary — 49.93°N, 14.18°EPozary — 49.95°N, 12.93°EZelkovice — 50.01°N, 14.09°EYehLi — 41.00°N, 123.00°EBromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dictyonema has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 87 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dictyonema and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Dictyonema and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,519 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 174 sites for Dictyonema, 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

86 references

Each of the 199 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. 74 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 content3

Picture of Dictyonema

Credit
Published by Maletz, J.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
dictyonema flabelliforme · MST:PALEO:MST-SP-3197

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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 itAcanthograptidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hall 1851