Evactinopora
Evactinopora is an extinct genus of Mississippian cystoporate bryozoans of the family Evactinoporidae. It formed free-living colonies that grew into a star-shaped form. It had several distinctive phases of colony growth: larvae would grow attached to hard surfaces before detaching, and the colony would then adapt to living on soft sediment, growing radial rays for stabilization during the juvenile growth stage and vertical vanes containing autozooecia in the adult stage.

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- EvactinoporidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Bryozoa
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 23 million years on record.
The record covers at least 353.7 Mya to 330.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 323.4 Mya.
18 occurrences of Evactinopora on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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
18 occurrences- Carboniferous100%
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
6 formations
- Branch Creek Formation5
- Baywulla Formation4
- Mount Head Formation · Rundle Group3
- Fern Glen Formation2
- Boone Formation2
- Rangari limestone Formation1
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The named rock units Evactinopora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Evactinopora and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Evactinopora and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
123 taxa- Echinoconchus biseriatus3 sites
- Kitakamithyris booralensis3 sites
- Spirifer3 sites
- Composita trinuclea2 sites
- Girtyella2 sites
- Griffithides2 sites
- Hapsiphyllum2 sites
- Spirifer pellaensis2 sites
- Acanthatia rangariensis1 site
- Acratia1 site
- Alispirifer laminosus transversus1 site
- Anematina proutana1 site
- Angyomphalus depressus1 site
- Archaeocidaris1 site
- Australosutura1 site
- Aviculopecten1 site
- Bairdia1 site
- Bairdia permagna1 site
- Bellerophontidae1 site
- Bythocypris1 site
- Camarotoechia1 site
- Cavellina1 site
- Cavellina glandella1 site
- Cavellina savagei1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Evactinopora, 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
6 references- The geology of the Yarrol Region. Part 1. Biostratigraphy9
- Evactinoporidae, a new family of Cystoporata (Bryozoa) from the Mississippian of North America: growth and functional morphology4
- Upper Paleozoic sections at Highwood Pass, Alberta2
- Lower Carboniferous Bryozoa from some localities in Sauerland, Germany1
- Stratigraphy and facies relationships of the upper Mississippian Mount Head Formation, Rocky Mountains and foothills, southwestern Alberta1
- The faunas of the Tournaisian Tulcumba Sandstone and its members in the Werrie and Belvue synclines, New South Wales1
Each of the 18 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 Evactinopora
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Evactinopora 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 itEvactinoporidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meek and Worthen 1865