Melonechinus

Melonechinus is an extinct genus of echinoid that lived in the Carboniferous. Its remains have been found in North America.

Melonechinus

Jonathan Chen · 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
PalaechinidaePBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Perischoechinoidea
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Perischoechinoidea
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Perischoechinoidea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 36 million years on record.

The record covers at least 335.4 Mya to 298.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 342.9 Mya to 293.52 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 2 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 2 occurrencesPermian344–342 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences342–340 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences340–339 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences339–337 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences337–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences298–296 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences296–294 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences294–293 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences335.4 Mya298.9 Mya344 Mya293 Mya

2 occurrences of Melonechinus on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

2 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

2 formations

Harrodsburg Limestone — 39.33°N, 86.67°WFodele — 35.41°N, 24.78°E

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

Melonechinus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Melonechinus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

23 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Melonechinus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Melonechinus

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

3D model

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

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 itPalaechinidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.