Machaeracanthus

Machaeracanthus

L. Beverly Halstead · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
MachaeracanthidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Acanthodii
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Acanthodii
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Acanthodii

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 413.02 Mya to 383.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 379 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 24 occurrencesDevonian — about 24 of 24 occurrencesDevonian420–419 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences419–418 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences418–416 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences415–413 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences413–412 Mya — about 2 occurrences412–411 Mya — about 2 occurrences411–409 Mya — about 1 occurrence409–408 Mya — about 1 occurrence408–406 Mya — about 1 occurrence406–405 Mya — about 1 occurrence405–404 Mya — about 1 occurrence404–402 Mya — about 1 occurrence402–401 Mya — about 1 occurrence401–399 Mya — about 1 occurrence399–398 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences398–396 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences396–395 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences395–394 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences394–392 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences391–389 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences387–385 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences384–382 Mya — about 2 occurrences382–381 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences381–380 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences380–378 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413.02 Mya383.4 Mya420.4 Mya378.2 Mya

24 occurrences of Machaeracanthus 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

24 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

Windmill Limestone — 39.96°N, 116.58°WBeartooth Butte — 44.95°N, 109.62°WHunsrück Slate — 49.89°N, 7.47°EHorlick — 84.75°S, 115.00°WMount Wyatt Earp — 79.35°S, 85.28°WPimenteira — 7.00°S, 42.00°WMaecuru — 2.00°S, 54.00°WHunsrueck Slate — 49.87°N, 7.38°ELost Burro — 36.30°N, 116.96°WRadotin Limestone — 49.99°N, 14.34°ERockport Quarry Limestone — 45.20°N, 83.39°WNewton Creek Limestone — 45.37°N, 84.22°WCampo Chico — 10.61°N, 72.39°WRed Hill Beds — 40.05°N, 116.04°W

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The named rock units Machaeracanthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Machaeracanthus and its relatives

Devonian

Where Machaeracanthus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

363 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Machaeracanthus, 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

14 references

Each of the 24 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. 2 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 Machaeracanthus

Source
GBIF
Credit
L. Beverly Halstead
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMachaeracanthidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newberry 1857