Merostomichnites

Merostomichnites is an ichnofossil genus, interpreted as a eurypterid trace. Traces produced by this large eurypterid were described from the Silurian and Lower Ordovician, and has been found in Portugal and Norway. The eurypterid trail was found by Hanken and Dr. J. Miller in 1971. The tracks found in Norway were likely made by Mixopterus kiaeri.

No picture of Merostomichnites was found. Wikipedia and Wikidata were searched and had none. iDigBio and GBIF were not searched: the Paleobiology Database does not place Merostomichnites firmly enough to tell it from something else bearing the same name, and a search on the name alone returns whichever of them was photographed. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
IchnofossilsPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 92 million years on record.

The record covers at least 512.1 Mya to 419.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 413.02 Mya.

Cambrian — about 2 of 4 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 4 occurrencesSilurian — about 0 of 4 occurrencesDevonian — about 2 of 4 occurrences523–519 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences519–516 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences516–512 Mya — about 1 occurrence422–418 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences418–415 Mya — about 1 occurrence415–411 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences512.1 Mya419.62 Mya523 Mya411 Mya

4 occurrences of Merostomichnites 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

4 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

3 formations

Fraenkelryggen — 79.83°N, 12.00°EWulongqing — 24.93°N, 102.82°EUpper Tal — 30.45°N, 78.12°E

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

Merostomichnites and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Merostomichnites and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Merostomichnites, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 content0

No picture of Merostomichnites was found. Wikipedia and Wikidata were searched and had none.

iDigBio and GBIF were not searched: the Paleobiology Database does not place Merostomichnites firmly enough to tell it from something else bearing the same name, and a search on the name alone returns whichever of them was photographed.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

No 3D scan of Merostomichnites 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 itIchnofossils through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Packard 1900