Fortiforceps

Fortiforceps is an extinct genus of Cambrian megacheiran marine arthropod known from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It was originally described by Hou and Bergström in 1997, and redescribed in 2020. It was relatively small, at 4 centimetres (1.6 in) or less in length. The head had a pair of large, stalked eyes, a pair of frontal projections, as well as a pair of great appendages, like other megacheirans, along with two other cephalic appendages. The trunk had either 20 or 22 segments, depending on the specimen. These segments had pronounced blade-like spines on their upper-outer edge. Each of the trunk segments were associated with pairs of biramous limbs, which probably have seven podomeres and like other megacheirans, have paddle-shaped exopods. The trunk terminated with a forked tailpiece, which on their outer edges had rod-like structures. The two lobes were separated by a rectangular central piece. It has been placed as a member of the family Jiangfengiidae, alongside Jianfengia, Sklerolibyon and possibly Parapeytoia.

Fortiforceps

Uncredited · 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
FortiforcipidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At most 6.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 514.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 8 of 8 occurrencesCambrian521–521 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences521–521 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences521.5 Mya514 Mya

8 occurrences of Fortiforceps 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

8 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

3 formations

Yuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EQiongzhusi — 24.65°N, 102.97°EQiongzhusi — 24.68°N, 102.98°E

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The named rock units Fortiforceps has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Fortiforceps and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Fortiforceps and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

218 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Fortiforceps, 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

5 references

Each of the 8 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 Fortiforceps

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Fortiforceps was found in Sketchfab.

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 itFortiforcipidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hou and Bergström 1997