Erettopterus
Searched as Erettopterus (Pterygotus) bilobus. The Paleobiology Database treats Erettopterus as the accepted name.
Erettopterus is a genus of large predatory eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Erettopterus have been discovered in deposits ranging from Early Silurian to the Early Devonian, and have been referred to several different species. Fossils have been recovered from three continents; Asia, Europe and North America. The genus name is composed by the Ancient Greek words ἐρέττω, which means "rower", and πτερόν, which means "wing", and therefore, "rower wing".
Tommy from Arad · CC BY 2.0 · 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
- PterygotidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida
Time the record covers
At most 5.7 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 438.6 Mya and 432.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Erettopterus on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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
1 occurrences- Silurian100%
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
1 formation
- Patrick Burn Formation · Priesthill Group1
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The named rock units Erettopterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Erettopterus and its relatives
SilurianWhere Erettopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.
Found in the same rock
269 taxa- Bivalvia9 sites
- Gastropoda7 sites
- Hughmilleria7 sites
- Nanahughmilleria7 sites
- Carcinosoma6 sites
- Leperditia6 sites
- Lingulidae6 sites
- Hardieopterus5 sites
- Loganellia5 sites
- Parahughmilleria5 sites
- Annelida4 sites
- Camarotoechia4 sites
- Cephalopoda4 sites
- Conulariida4 sites
- Howellella4 sites
- Lingula4 sites
- Mixopterus4 sites
- Ostracoda4 sites
- Phyllocarida4 sites
- Pterygotus4 sites
- Vernonaspis4 sites
- Anthozoa3 sites
- Arthrophycus3 sites
- Delthyris3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Erettopterus, 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
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Erettopterus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Tommy from Arad
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Erettopterus 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.
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 itPterygotidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Salter 1859)