Megistaspis

Megistaspis

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
IsotelinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asaphida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Asaphida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Asaphidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 24 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 452.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 488.9 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 234 occurrencesOrdovician — about 234 of 234 occurrencesOrdovician490–488 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences488–487 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences487–485 Mya — about 2 occurrences485–484 Mya — about 2 occurrences484–482 Mya — about 3 occurrences482–481 Mya — about 4 occurrences481–479 Mya — about 4 occurrences479–478 Mya — about 4 occurrences478–476 Mya — about 7 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 14 occurrences475–473 Mya — about 17 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 18 occurrences472–470 Mya — about 44 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 41 occurrences469–467 Mya — about 25 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 24 occurrences466–464 Mya — about 19 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 1 occurrence463–461 Mya — about 1 occurrence461–459 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 1 occurrence458–456 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences455–453 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences452–450 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences449–447 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–444 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477.1 Mya452.8 Mya489.8 Mya444.3 Mya

234 occurrences of Megistaspis 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

234 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

44 formations

Holen — 57.23°N, 16.96°EHolen — 57.37°N, 17.08°EHolen — 57.32°N, 17.00°EHolen — 57.15°N, 16.92°EHolen — 57.03°N, 16.88°EHolen — 57.00°N, 16.82°EHolen — 57.17°N, 16.94°EHolen — 56.62°N, 16.56°EHolen — 56.89°N, 16.73°EVolkhov — 59.97°N, 32.57°EVolkhov — 59.75°N, 30.43°EVolkhov — 59.88°N, 31.59°EVolkhov — 59.82°N, 32.20°ETøyen — 59.73°N, 9.87°ETøyen — 59.65°N, 9.65°ETøyen — 60.75°N, 11.14°ETøyen — 59.92°N, 9.97°ETøyen — 59.79°N, 10.50°ETøyen — 59.92°N, 10.78°ETøyen — 59.25°N, 10.90°ELeetse — 59.63°N, 30.80°ELeetse — 59.75°N, 30.43°ELeetse — 59.88°N, 31.59°ELynna — 59.97°N, 32.57°EHuk — 59.65°N, 9.65°EHuk — 59.72°N, 9.85°EHuk — 59.72°N, 9.87°EHuk — 59.24°N, 10.89°ENinemile — 39.10°N, 116.26°WNinemile — 39.20°N, 116.25°WKomstad — 55.04°N, 14.88°ELatorp — 58.00°N, 14.00°ELatorp — 57.60°N, 13.42°ELatorp — 59.24°N, 14.94°ELeetse — 59.40°N, 24.61°ELeetse — 59.43°N, 24.79°ELeetse — 59.47°N, 24.94°ELeetse — 59.45°N, 25.18°ESan Bernardo — 24.49°S, 65.55°WSan Bernardo — 24.83°S, 65.37°WOland C — 57.35°N, 17.04°ESanta Rosita — 24.79°S, 65.38°WSaint-Chinian — 43.44°N, 2.89°EKarasa — 52.22°N, 87.01°EKarasa — 51.98°N, 87.14°ESiupyliai — 56.51°N, 23.34°EDeadwood — 47.15°N, 110.22°WFlorentine Valley Limestone — 42.00°S, 146.00°EElnes — 60.00°N, 11.00°EToyen — 60.00°N, 11.00°EHovinsholm — 60.00°N, 11.00°EXiliangsi — 32.00°N, 106.00°EDawan — 30.00°N, 116.00°EZhaojiaba — 33.00°N, 106.00°E

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The named rock units Megistaspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 56 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megistaspis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Megistaspis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

564 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 204 sites for Megistaspis, 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

43 references

Each of the 234 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. 31 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 content2

Picture of Megistaspis

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-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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

Keep going

What may have been alongside itIsotelinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jaanusson 1956