Echinosphaerites

Echinosphaerites is a genus of rhombiferan cystoid echinoderms that lived in the Early to Middle Ordovician of North America and Europe.

Echinosphaerites

Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia · Public Domain · 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
EchinosphaeritidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Rhombifera
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Rhombifera
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Rhombifera
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhombifera
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 31 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 445.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.4 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 99 occurrencesOrdovician — about 99 of 99 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 99 occurrences487–486 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences486–484 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences484–483 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences483–481 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences481–480 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences480–478 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences478–477 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences471–469 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 2 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 2 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 2 occurrences465–463 Mya — about 1 occurrence463–462 Mya — about 1 occurrence462–460 Mya — about 3 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 5 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 17 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 15 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 11 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 9 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 8 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 8 occurrences450–448 Mya — about 4 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 3 occurrences447–445 Mya — about 3 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 1 occurrence444–442 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences477.1 Mya445.2 Mya487.3 Mya442.2 Mya

99 occurrences of Echinosphaerites 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

99 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

55 formations

Benbolt — 37.10°N, 81.56°WBenbolt — 37.11°N, 81.52°WBenbolt — 37.10°N, 81.34°WBenbolt — 37.27°N, 81.00°WBenbolt — 37.08°N, 81.71°WBenbolt — 37.00°N, 81.67°WBenbolt — 37.00°N, 81.00°WDalby — 57.00°N, 17.00°EDalby — 58.00°N, 15.00°EDalby — 61.00°N, 15.00°EDalby — 58.00°N, 14.00°EDalby — 58.00°N, 12.00°EDalby — 57.24°N, 17.07°ESegerstad — 56.72°N, 16.71°ESegerstad — 56.91°N, 16.84°ESegerstad — 56.39°N, 16.54°ESegerstad — 57.32°N, 17.02°ESegerstad — 57.20°N, 17.02°ECampile — 53.44°N, 7.23°WCampile — 53.22°N, 7.93°WCampile — 53.45°N, 7.17°WBromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°WKriaunos — 55.67°N, 25.38°EKriaunos — 55.55°N, 24.10°ESegerstad Limestone — 57.00°N, 17.00°ESegerstad Limestone — 56.45°N, 16.60°EVollen — 60.00°N, 11.00°EVollen — 59.09°N, 9.65°ESteinvika Limestone — 60.00°N, 11.00°ESteinvika Limestone — 59.08°N, 9.68°EZahorany — 50.00°N, 14.00°ELower Ktaoua — 31.00°N, 5.00°WLower Ktaoua — 30.00°N, 8.50°WUpper Ktaoua — 31.08°N, 5.25°WUpper Ktaoua — 30.77°N, 5.66°WEdinburg — 38.00°N, 79.00°WSolvang — 59.84°N, 10.54°ESolvang — 60.35°N, 10.42°EKrastai — 55.67°N, 25.38°EKrastai — 55.55°N, 24.10°ESventupys - Sartai — 55.55°N, 24.10°ELantz Mills — 38.53°N, 78.60°WSularp Shale — 55.71°N, 13.32°ESeby Limestone — 57.00°N, 17.00°ESkagen Limestone — 58.00°N, 14.00°EArnestad — 60.00°N, 11.00°ELetna — 50.00°N, 14.00°EVinice — 50.00°N, 14.00°EXiaqiaojia — 27.00°N, 103.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Echinosphaerites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Echinosphaerites and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Echinosphaerites and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

969 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Echinosphaerites, 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

45 references

Each of the 99 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. 33 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 content2

Picture of Echinosphaerites

Credit
Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itEchinosphaeritidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wahlenberg 1818