Leptomitus

Leptomitus is a genus of demosponge known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Its name is derived from the Greek lept ('slender') and mitos ('thread'), referring to the overall shape of the sponge. 138 specimens of Leptomitus are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.26% of the community.

Leptomitus

Woudloper · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
LeptomitidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Porifera

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 49 of 49 occurrencesCambrian540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences537–535 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–531 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 5 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 5 occurrences518–516 Mya — about 5 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 4 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 3 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 2 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 2 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 5 occurrences508–506 Mya — about 5 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 4 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 1 occurrence503–502 Mya — about 1 occurrence502–501 Mya — about 1 occurrence501–499 Mya — about 1 occurrence499–498 Mya — about 1 occurrence498–496 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences516 Mya504.5 Mya539.6 Mya496.2 Mya

49 occurrences of Leptomitus on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

49 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

14 formations

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WBurgess Shale — 51.05°N, 115.85°WYu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EYu'anshan — 24.87°N, 102.83°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EQiongzhusi — 24.65°N, 102.97°ENiutitang — 27.67°N, 106.68°EBalang — 26.39°N, 107.69°EBalang — 28.42°N, 109.42°EParker Slate — 44.48°N, 73.21°WParker Slate — 44.74°N, 73.16°WKinzers — 40.04°N, 76.31°WKinzers — 40.09°N, 76.35°WMurero — 41.17°N, 1.48°WMarjum Limestone — 39.22°N, 113.40°WDuchesnay — 50.63°N, 115.60°WStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WShuijingtuo — 30.50°N, 111.16°EParker — 44.73°N, 73.15°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Leptomitus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Leptomitus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

590 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Leptomitus, 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

24 references

Each of the 49 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. 12 further references are 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 Leptomitus

Credit
Woudloper
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Leptomitus 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 itLeptomitidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1886