Orthotheca

Orthotheca is a genus of sessile bottom-dwelling hyolith.

No picture of Orthotheca was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Orthotheca, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OrthothecidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Hyolitha
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Hyolitha
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Hyolitha
Vision
blindPBDB, for Hyolitha
Environment
marinePBDB, for Hyolitha

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 521 Mya to 393.47 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 387.95 Mya.

Cambrian — about 12 of 43 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 11 of 43 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 43 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 19 of 43 occurrencesDevonian542–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–531 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences531–526 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences526–521 Mya — about 1 occurrence521–516 Mya — about 1 occurrence516–510 Mya — about 2 occurrences510–505 Mya — about 5 occurrences505–500 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences500–495 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences490–484 Mya — about 2 occurrences484–479 Mya — about 4 occurrences479–474 Mya — about 2 occurrences474–469 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences469–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–453 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences453–448 Mya — about 1 occurrence448–442 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences432–427 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences427–422 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences422–416 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences416–411 Mya — about 3 occurrences411–406 Mya — about 5 occurrences406–401 Mya — about 5 occurrences401–395 Mya — about 3 occurrences395–390 Mya — about 2 occurrences390–385 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences521 Mya393.47 Mya542 Mya385 Mya

43 occurrences of Orthotheca on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

43 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

26 formations

Gydo — 33.30°S, 21.83°EGydo — 33.52°S, 24.74°EGydo — 33.33°S, 19.37°EGydo — 33.31°S, 22.43°EGydo — 34.01°S, 23.46°ELower Comley — 52.56°N, 2.76°WVal d'Homs — 43.00°N, 3.00°ELangston — 42.19°N, 112.25°WSkeels Corner Slate — 44.78°N, 73.11°WDalby — 57.00°N, 17.00°EShineton Shale — 52.63°N, 2.58°WShineton Shales — 52.63°N, 2.58°WOelandicus Shale — 56.88°N, 16.65°ENorretorp — 52.48°N, 13.83°EDictyonema Shale — 55.58°N, 14.13°EWufeng — 29.00°N, 115.00°EAcoite — 22.30°S, 65.30°WSanta Rosita — 24.00°S, 66.00°WBuelna — 30.42°N, 111.93°WMotol — 50.08°N, 14.47°ESanted — 41.00°N, 1.00°WMill — 55.25°N, 4.85°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°WOld Point — 40.97°N, 77.75°WMerzâ- Akhsaï — 29.90°N, 6.85°WHamar Laghdad Limestone — 31.38°N, 4.06°WAmerboh — 31.38°N, 4.05°WRadotin Limestone — 49.99°N, 14.34°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Orthotheca has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Orthotheca and its relatives

Devonian

Where Orthotheca and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

635 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Orthotheca, 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

29 references

Each of the 43 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. 17 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 content0

No picture of Orthotheca was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Orthotheca, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itOrthothecidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Novak 1886)