Mesotaphraspis

Mesotaphraspis

via GBIF · 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
DimeropygidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Proetida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Dimeropygidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 7.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 456.6 Mya to 448.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 461.1 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Ordovician — about 22 of 22 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 22 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–458 Mya — about 1 occurrence458–457 Mya — about 2 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 2 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 1 occurrence456–455 Mya — about 1 occurrence455–455 Mya — about 1 occurrence455–454 Mya — about 1 occurrence454–453 Mya — about 1 occurrence453–453 Mya — about 1 occurrence453–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 1 occurrence451–451 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 1 occurrence450–450 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–448 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–446 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences445–445 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences443–443 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences456.6 Mya448.8 Mya461.6 Mya442.6 Mya

22 occurrences of Mesotaphraspis 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

22 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

12 formations

Balclatchie — 54.84°N, 4.05°WBalclatchie — 55.22°N, 4.85°WEdinburg — 38.99°N, 78.36°WEdinburg — 38.99°N, 78.35°WEdinburg — 38.56°N, 78.86°WNakkholmen — 61.33°N, 8.80°ENakkholmen — 59.84°N, 10.54°ESolvang — 60.00°N, 11.00°ESolvang — 61.33°N, 8.80°EAnderken — 43.88°N, 75.55°ELangåra — 59.85°N, 10.49°EMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°WLincolnshire Limestone — 38.97°N, 78.38°WDoularg — 55.20°N, 4.74°WStinchar Limestone — 55.20°N, 4.75°WRaheen — 52.21°N, 6.98°WArdwell Farm — 55.22°N, 4.77°W

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

Mesotaphraspis and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Mesotaphraspis and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

334 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Mesotaphraspis, 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

12 references

Each of the 22 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 Mesotaphraspis

Source
GBIF
Credit
via GBIF
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 itDimeropygidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Whittington and Evitt 1953