Helicosphaera

Searched as Helicosphaera ampliaperta. The Paleobiology Database treats Helicosphaera as the accepted name.

Helicosphaera

via iDigBio · CC BY · via iDigBio. 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
HaptophytaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Haptophyta
Life habit
planktonic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Haptophyta
Motility
passively mobilePBDB, for Haptophyta
Environment
oceanic,oligotrophic,marine,brackishPBDB, for Haptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 0 of 90 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 90 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 73 of 90 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 90 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 90 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 6 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 13 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 12 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.3–8.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.9–4.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.7–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–2.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.4–1.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.3–111 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence23.04 Mya2.58 Mya34.6 Mya111 ka

90 occurrences of Helicosphaera on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

90 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

Bolago Marl — 46.05°N, 11.93°EItahashi — 34.86°N, 133.00°E

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The named rock units Helicosphaera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 88 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Helicosphaera and its relatives

Miocene

Where Helicosphaera and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

653 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,271 sites for Helicosphaera, 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

19 references

Each of the 90 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. 7 further references are not listed. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Helicosphaera

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC BY
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Helicosphaera 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHaptophyta through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kamptner 1954