Girvanella

Girvanella is a fossil thought to represent the calcified sheath of a filamentous cyanobacterium known from the Burgess Shale and other Cambrian fossil deposits. Specimens are also known from the Early Ordovician San Juan Formation, Argentina.

No picture of Girvanella was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Girvanella, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GirvanellaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB
Environment
hypersaline,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Cyanobacteria

Time the record covers

At least 531 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Cambrian — about 72 of 469 occurrencesOrdovician — about 130 of 469 occurrencesSilurian — about 23 of 469 occurrencesDevonian — about 111 of 469 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 57 of 469 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 24 of 469 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 469 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 4 of 469 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 12 of 469 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 469 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 469 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 18 of 469 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 8 of 469 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 469 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 469 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 469 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 469 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 469 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 469 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 469 occurrences648–626 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences626–604 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences604–583 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences583–561 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences561–540 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences540–518 Mya — about 12 occurrences518–496 Mya — about 57 occurrences496–475 Mya — about 20 occurrences475–453 Mya — about 69 occurrences453–432 Mya — about 52 occurrences432–410 Mya — about 46 occurrences410–389 Mya — about 24 occurrences389–367 Mya — about 45 occurrences367–345 Mya — about 13 occurrences345–324 Mya — about 36 occurrences324–302 Mya — about 11 occurrences302–281 Mya — about 23 occurrences281–259 Mya — about 7 occurrences259–237 Mya — about 6 occurrences237–216 Mya — about 5 occurrences216–194 Mya — about 7 occurrences194–173 Mya — about 2 occurrences173–151 Mya — about 14 occurrences151–130 Mya — about 8 occurrences130–108 Mya — about 4 occurrences108–86 Mya — about 3 occurrences86–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences65–43 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences22–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence538.8 Mya7.246 Mya648 Mya0 Mya

469 occurrences of Girvanella on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

469 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

202 formations

Benbolt — 37.10°N, 81.34°WBenbolt — 37.22°N, 81.36°WBenbolt — 37.23°N, 81.10°WBenbolt — 37.00°N, 81.00°WBenbolt — 37.23°N, 81.32°WBenbolt — 37.08°N, 81.71°WBenbolt — 37.10°N, 81.56°WBenbolt — 37.11°N, 81.52°WBenbolt — 37.27°N, 81.00°WBenbolt — 37.00°N, 81.67°WBenbolt — 37.02°N, 81.63°WBenbolt — 36.19°N, 83.93°WWardell — 37.08°N, 81.55°WWardell — 37.10°N, 81.34°WWardell — 37.00°N, 81.00°WWardell — 37.02°N, 81.73°WWardell — 37.03°N, 81.79°WWardell — 37.06°N, 81.75°WMatoppa — 39.27°N, 8.47°EMatoppa — 39.18°N, 8.55°EMatoppa — 39.40°N, 8.45°EMatoppa — 39.35°N, 8.42°EKindblade — 34.92°N, 98.73°WKindblade — 34.38°N, 96.93°WKindblade — 34.37°N, 97.13°WKindblade — 34.42°N, 97.27°WLianglitag — 39.25°N, 84.67°ELianglitag — 40.08°N, 78.83°ELianglitag — 38.60°N, 79.55°EOread Limestone — 37.56°N, 95.98°WOread Limestone — 38.34°N, 95.64°WOread Limestone — 39.01°N, 95.30°WOread Limestone — 41.01°N, 95.88°WOread Limestone — 41.16°N, 94.90°WOread Limestone — 41.31°N, 94.20°WAnderken — 43.88°N, 75.55°EAnderken — 45.08°N, 73.38°ENubrigyn — 32.84°S, 148.99°EMoniello — 43.58°N, 5.97°WIhmert — 51.26°N, 7.65°EHeceta — 55.78°N, 133.17°WHeceta — 55.73°N, 133.47°WKoh-e Giru — 34.33°N, 68.40°EKoh-e Giru — 33.87°N, 67.93°EKoh-e Giru — 33.75°N, 68.02°EKoh-e Giru — 33.62°N, 67.90°EHunghuayuan — 27.46°N, 109.04°EHunghuayuan — 30.10°N, 116.95°EHunghuayuan — 31.21°N, 111.40°EHunghuayuan — 30.89°N, 111.39°EYijianfang — 40.08°N, 78.83°ECashions Creek — 42.58°S, 146.50°ECashions Creek — 42.73°S, 146.63°ECashions Creek — 42.54°S, 146.45°EBuelna — 30.42°N, 111.93°WBuelna — 30.70°N, 112.27°WSalaany Gol — 46.87°N, 95.80°ESalaany Gol — 47.15°N, 96.90°ETable Point — 50.70°N, 57.38°WTable Point — 48.55°N, 58.92°WStuart Bay — 75.75°N, 98.33°WStuart Bay — 76.08°N, 97.97°WStuart Bay — 76.23°N, 97.98°WBadragha — 34.37°N, 68.33°EBadragha — 34.35°N, 68.38°ESouverain-Pré — 50.61°N, 5.95°ELane — 53.55°N, 6.13°WHonghuayuan — 30.85°N, 111.38°EHonghuayuan — 30.90°N, 110.83°EHonghuayuan — 30.10°N, 116.93°EShallow Bay — 49.92°N, 57.82°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Girvanella has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 178 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 116 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Girvanella and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Girvanella and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

2,027 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 275 sites for Girvanella, and this reads 240 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

231 references

Each of the 469 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. 219 further references are not listed. 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 content0

No picture of Girvanella was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Girvanella, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itGirvanellaceae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Nicholson and Etheridge 1878