Jaekelopterus

Jaekelopterus is an extinct genus of eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Jaekelopterus have been discovered in deposits of Middle Silurian to Early Devonian age, from the Wenlock epoch to Emsian stage. There are three known species: the type species J. rhenaniae from Devonian brackish to fresh water strata in the Rhineland, J. howelli from Devonian estuarine strata in Wyoming, and J. marylandicus from Silurian deposits in Maryland. The generic name combines the name of German paleontologist Otto Jaekel, who described the type species, and the Greek word πτερόν meaning 'wing'.

Jaekelopterus

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
PterygotidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 426.7 Mya to 410.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 432.9 Mya to 387.95 Mya.

Silurian — about 1 of 7 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 6 of 7 occurrencesDevonian434–432 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432–431 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences431–429 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences429–428 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences428–426 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences420–418 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences418–417 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences417–415 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences414–412 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences412–410 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences410–409 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences409–407 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences407–406 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences406–404 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences404–403 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences403–401 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences401–400 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences400–398 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences398–396 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences396–395 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences395–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences392–390 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences390–389 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences389–387 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences426.7 Mya410.62 Mya433.8 Mya387.1 Mya

7 occurrences of Jaekelopterus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

Beartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°WMifflintown — 39.70°N, 78.18°WKlerf — 50.25°N, 6.46°EHunsruck Slate — 49.85°N, 7.39°EMerrimerriwa — 30.87°S, 143.78°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Jaekelopterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Jaekelopterus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Jaekelopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

97 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Jaekelopterus, 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

7 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 content2

Picture of Jaekelopterus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itPterygotidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.