Ethmophyllum

Ethmophyllum is an extinct genus of sea sponge known from the Cambrian period.

Ethmophyllum

C.D. Walcott · 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
EthmophyllidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
Vision
blindPBDB, for Porifera

Time the record covers

At most 31 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 538.8 Mya and 508.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 35 of 35 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–530 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 2 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 5 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 5 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 5 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 5 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 3 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 2 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 2 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences539.4 Mya507.6 Mya

35 occurrences of Ethmophyllum 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

35 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

9 formations

Pestrotsvet — 61.02°N, 126.15°EPestrotsvet — 61.03°N, 126.13°EPuerto Blanco — 30.42°N, 111.93°WPoleta — 37.27°N, 118.15°WPoleta — 37.38°N, 117.27°WPoleta — 37.30°N, 118.14°WPoleta — 37.76°N, 117.61°WSekwi — 59.27°N, 129.18°WDmitriyevskaya — 44.50°N, 132.63°EShady Dolomite — 36.85°N, 80.90°WRosella — 58.28°N, 126.73°WTaryn — 61.03°N, 126.13°ECampito — 37.02°N, 117.96°W

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The named rock units Ethmophyllum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ethmophyllum and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Ethmophyllum and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

57 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Ethmophyllum, 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

11 references

Each of the 35 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 content1

Picture of Ethmophyllum

Credit
C.D. Walcott
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ethmophyllum 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 itEthmophyllidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meek 1868