Helopora fragilis

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- HeloporaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Bryozoa
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 1.9 million years on record.
The record covers at least 440.5 Mya to 438.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 432.9 Mya.
34 occurrences of Helopora fragilis on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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
34 occurrences- Silurian100%
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
8 formations
- Sodus Formation · Clinton Group13
- Furnaceville Formation · Clinton Group7
- Reynales Formation · Clinton Group5
- Bear Creek Formation · Clinton Group4
- Wolcott Formation · Clinton Group2
- Oneida Formation · Clinton Group1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Helopora fragilis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Helopora fragilis and its relatives
SilurianWhere Helopora fragilis and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.
Found in the same rock
73 taxa- Phaenopora ensiformis32 sites
- Coelospira hemispherica31 sites
- Zygobolba29 sites
- Strophodonta corrugata27 sites
- Tentaculites15 sites
- Phaenopora explanata11 sites
- Pterinea10 sites
- Chaetetes8 sites
- Ctenodonta8 sites
- Zaphrenthis8 sites
- Rhynchotreta7 sites
- Encrinurus6 sites
- Fenestella6 sites
- Lingula (Palaeoglossa) perovata6 sites
- Mastigobolbina6 sites
- Pyrenomoeus cuneatus6 sites
- Rhipidomella6 sites
- Holopea obsoleta5 sites
- Nematopora5 sites
- Pentamerus (Pentamerus) oblongus5 sites
- Phaenopora5 sites
- Atrypa reticularis4 sites
- Chasmatopora4 sites
- Cornulites4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Helopora fragilis, 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
3 references- The Clinton of Western and Central New York32
- Upper Ordovician bryozoans of the Pin Formation (Spiti Valley, Northern India)1
- Silurian stratigraphy and palæontology of the Niagara escarpment in Ontario1
Each of the 34 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 Helopora fragilis
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Helopora fragilis 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itHelopora through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hall 1851