Erieopterus

Erieopterus is a genus of prehistoric eurypterid found in Silurian to Devonian-aged marine and freshwater strata of North America. The genus contains three species from the Silurian to the Devonian. Erieopterus is the only genus in the family Erieopteridae, part of the Dolichopteroidea superfamily.

Erieopterus

Jessica Utrup · 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
ErieopteridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 426.7 Mya to 410.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 432.9 Mya to 393.47 Mya.

Silurian — about 12 of 17 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 5 of 17 occurrencesDevonian434–432 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432–431 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences431–430 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences430–428 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences428–427 Mya — about 1 occurrence427–425 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences425–424 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences424–423 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences423–421 Mya — about 3 occurrences421–420 Mya — about 4 occurrences420–419 Mya — about 1 occurrence419–417 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences417–416 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences415–413 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences413–412 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences412–410 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences410–409 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences409–408 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences408–406 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences406–405 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences405–404 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences404–402 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences402–401 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences401–400 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences400–398 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences398–397 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences397–395 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences395–394 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences426.7 Mya410.62 Mya433.7 Mya392.7 Mya

17 occurrences of Erieopterus 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

17 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

11 formations

Manlius — 43.45°N, 74.95°WManlius — 43.05°N, 76.15°WKokomo — 40.48°N, 86.13°WBear Rock — 68.18°N, 125.84°WPut-In-Bay — 42.33°N, 83.05°WWabash — 40.48°N, 86.18°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WRondout — 43.05°N, 76.15°WRead Bay — 75.00°N, 95.00°WRootsikula — 58.42°N, 22.50°EFiddlers Green — 42.85°N, 78.80°WKlerf — 50.25°N, 6.46°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Erieopterus 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.

Erieopterus and its relatives

Silurian

Where Erieopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

132 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Erieopterus, 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

7 references

Each of the 17 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 Erieopterus

Credit
Jessica Utrup
Licence
CC0
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 itErieopteridae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.