Ellipsocephalus

Ellipsocephalus Zenker, 1833, is a genus of blind Cambrian trilobite, comprising benthic species inhabiting deep, poorly lit or aphotic habitats. E. hoffi is a common trilobite mainly from central Europe.

Ellipsocephalus

TheoricienQuantique · 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
EllipsocephalinaePBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Redlichiida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Redlichiida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Redlichiida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Ellipsocephalidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 46 of 46 occurrencesCambrian540–538 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences537–535 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences534–532 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 1 occurrence519–518 Mya — about 1 occurrence518–516 Mya — about 1 occurrence516–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 2 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 2 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 1 occurrence511–509 Mya — about 1 occurrence509–508 Mya — about 3 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 7 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 7 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 5 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 4 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 4 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 2 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 1 occurrence498–496 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences516 Mya504.5 Mya539.6 Mya496.2 Mya

46 occurrences of Ellipsocephalus on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

46 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

13 formations

Jince — 49.78°N, 13.97°EJince — 49.00°N, 14.00°EJince — 49.96°N, 13.74°EUsarzow Sandstone — 50.72°N, 21.52°EOcieseki Sandstone — 51.00°N, 20.00°EOcieseki Sandstone — 50.75°N, 20.97°EOcieseki Sandstone — 50.90°N, 20.90°EHanford Brook — 45.28°N, 66.03°WSkryje — 49.95°N, 13.77°EGislov — 55.52°N, 14.35°ERingstrand — 60.90°N, 10.73°ERingstrand — 60.95°N, 10.78°ESlowiec Sandstone — 50.68°N, 21.37°EBorgholm — 57.12°N, 16.99°EAcadoparadoxides oelandicus Shales — 59.12°N, 15.30°ESenice — 49.88°N, 15.57°ESkryje Shale — 49.97°N, 13.77°EAkdurug — 51.72°N, 92.20°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ellipsocephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ellipsocephalus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Ellipsocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

155 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Ellipsocephalus, 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

18 references

Each of the 46 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. 6 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 Ellipsocephalus

Credit
TheoricienQuantique
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itEllipsocephalinae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zenker 1833