Geophilomorpha

Geophilomorpha is an order of centipedes commonly known as soil centipedes. The name "Geophilomorpha" comes from Ancient Greek γεω- (geo-), meaning "earth", φίλος (phílos), meaning "lover", and μορφή (morphḗ), meaning "form". This group is the most diverse centipede order, with 230 genera. These centipedes are found nearly worldwide but are absent in Antarctica and most Arctic regions.

Geophilomorpha

AJC1 from UK · CC BY-SA 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
EpimorphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda

Time the record covers

At least 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 13 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 13 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 13 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences149.2 Mya5.333 Mya155 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Geophilomorpha on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

13 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

2 formations

Onyx Marble — 35.10°N, 112.59°WNusplingen Limestone — 48.13°N, 8.88°E

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The named rock units Geophilomorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Geophilomorpha and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Geophilomorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

981 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Geophilomorpha, 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 13 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 Geophilomorpha

Credit
AJC1 from UK
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Geophilomorpha 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 itEpimorpha through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.