Megalograptidae

Megalograptidae are a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic chelicerate arthropods commonly known as "sea scorpions".

Megalograptidae

Ichthyovenator · 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
CarcinosomatoideaPBDB
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 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 438.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 469.4 Mya to 432.9 Mya.

Ordovician — about 10 of 11 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 11 occurrencesSilurian470–469 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–461 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences454–452 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 2 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–447 Mya — about 1 occurrence447–446 Mya — about 1 occurrence446–445 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences444–442 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–438 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences438–437 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences437–436 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences436–435 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences435–433 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences433–432 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458.2 Mya438.6 Mya470.1 Mya432.2 Mya

11 occurrences of Megalograptidae on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

11 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

8 formations

Waynesville — 39.00°N, 84.00°WWaynesville — 39.34°N, 84.06°WLiberty — 39.00°N, 84.00°WLiberty — 39.40°N, 84.01°WMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°WMartinsburg — 36.84°N, 81.72°WLa Lande Muree — 48.27°N, 2.07°WUtica Shale — 43.24°N, 75.26°WElkhorn — 38.68°N, 83.45°WWhitewater — 39.51°N, 84.75°WWinneshiek Shale — 43.31°N, 91.78°W

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

Megalograptidae and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Megalograptidae and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

238 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Megalograptidae, 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 11 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 Megalograptidae

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

No 3D scan of Megalograptidae 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.

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 itCarcinosomatoidea through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Caster and Kjellesvig-Waering 1955