Isocrania

Isocrania is an extinct genus of brachiopods found during the Upper Cretaceous. Early representatives were attached to the underground, but later species are presumed to be free living at an increasingly earlier age. This was probably an adaptation to the increasing very thick and fine sedimentation during the latest Cretaceous.

Isocrania

Dwergenpaartje · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
CraniidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Craniida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Craniida
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Craniida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Craniata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Craniata

Time the record covers

At least 209 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 85 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 1 of 85 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 85 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 85 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 85 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 85 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 85 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 85 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 60 of 85 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 20 of 85 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 85 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 85 occurrences253–245 Mya — about 1 occurrence126–119 Mya — about 1 occurrence97–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–74 Mya — about 9 occurrences74–67 Mya — about 42 occurrences67–59 Mya — about 26 occurrences44–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences247 Mya37.71 Mya253 Mya30 Mya

85 occurrences of Isocrania on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

85 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

9 formations

Ciply-Malogne Phosphatic Chalk — 50.42°N, 3.94°ECraie de Villedieu — 45.00°N, 0.37°ESantee — 33.32°N, 79.71°WSantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 80.15°WTupelo Bay — 33.21°N, 80.45°WObourg — 50.41°N, 3.92°ETrivières Chalk — 50.41°N, 3.92°EMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.68°ELoulou — 25.46°N, 106.75°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Isocrania has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Isocrania and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

351 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 66 sites for Isocrania, 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

13 references

Each of the 85 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. 1 further reference is 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 content1

Picture of Isocrania

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Isocrania 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 itCraniidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jaekel 1902