Obolella

Obolella is a genus of Cambrian brachiopods. From the lower Cambrain period (Atdabanian) around 530 to 524 million years ago. Fossils have been found in the United States, Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, China, Spain, and Australia.

Obolella

C.D. Walcott · Public Domain · 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
ObolellidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Obolellida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Obolellida
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Obolellida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Obolellata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 475.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 471.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 41 of 42 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 1 of 42 occurrencesOrdovician540–538 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences538–535 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences535–533 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences533–531 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences531–528 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences528–526 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences526–524 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences524–521 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences521–519 Mya — about 2 occurrences519–517 Mya — about 3 occurrences517–514 Mya — about 8 occurrences514–512 Mya — about 13 occurrences512–510 Mya — about 11 occurrences510–507 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences507–505 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences503–500 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences500–498 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences498–496 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences496–493 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences493–491 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences491–489 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences489–486 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences477–475 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences475–472 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences472–470 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences516 Mya475.3 Mya540 Mya470 Mya

42 occurrences of Obolella 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

42 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

18 formations

Bastion — 74.10°N, 23.00°WBastion — 74.35°N, 22.77°WBastion — 73.52°N, 24.68°WBastion — 72.85°N, 25.03°WPoleta — 37.79°N, 117.27°WPoleta — 37.26°N, 118.15°WPoleta — 37.27°N, 118.09°WPoleta — 37.02°N, 117.96°WForteau — 51.56°N, 56.75°WForteau — 49.60°N, 57.83°WCampito — 37.02°N, 117.96°WRingstrand — 60.90°N, 10.73°EOi-Muran Reef Massif — 61.07°N, 126.18°ESchodack — 42.53°N, 73.69°WHoyt Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WAntietam Sandstone — 39.65°N, 76.56°WTal — 30.43°N, 78.18°EXidashan — 41.50°N, 90.00°EWeymouth — 41.95°N, 71.28°WSofiekammen — 76.90°N, 15.98°EAftenstjernesø — 81.57°N, 42.92°WCarrara — 35.88°N, 116.16°WGoodwin — 39.43°N, 115.97°WBrigus — 47.85°N, 53.94°WPestrotsvet — 61.07°N, 126.18°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Obolella has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Obolella and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Obolella and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

309 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Obolella, 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

20 references

Each of the 42 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. 8 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 content1

Picture of Obolella

Credit
C.D. Walcott
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Obolella 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 itObolellidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Billings 1861