Grypania spiralis

Grypania is an early, tube-shaped fossil from the Proterozoic eon. The organism, with a size over one centimeter and consistent form, could have been a giant bacterium, a bacterial colony, or a eukaryotic alga. The oldest probable Grypania fossils date to about 1870 million years ago and the youngest extended into the Ediacaran period. This implies that the time range of this taxon extended for 1200 million years.

A picture published with the record for Grypania spiralis. What it shows has not been checked.

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
GrypaniaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 1165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1800 Mya to 635 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 2050 Mya to 538.8 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 7 occurrences2080–2028 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2028–1975 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1975–1923 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1923–1871 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1871–1818 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1818–1766 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1609–1556 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1556–1504 Mya — about 1 occurrence1504–1452 Mya — about 1 occurrence1452–1399 Mya — about 1 occurrence1399–1347 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1347–1294 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1294–1242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1242–1190 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1190–1137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1137–1085 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1085–1032 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1032–980 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences666–613 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences613–561 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences561–509 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1800 Mya635 Mya2080 Mya509 Mya

7 occurrences of Grypania spiralis on record. 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

7 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

5 formations

Greyson — 46.49°N, 111.25°WGreyson — 46.33°N, 111.19°WGaoyuzhuang — 39.14°N, 117.18°ERampur Shale — 24.91°N, 84.18°ENegaunee — 46.45°N, 87.61°WDoushantuo — 27.83°N, 109.06°E

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

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Grypania spiralis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

Each of the 7 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 Grypania spiralis

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 Grypania spiralis 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 itGrypania through time

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Walcott 1899)