Oryctocephalus

Oryctocephalus is a genus of trilobites known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 24 specimens of Oryctocephalus are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.42% of the community. This small- to medium-sized trilobite's major characteristics are prominent eye ridges, pleural spines, long genal spines, spines on the pygidium, and notably four furrows connecting pairs of pits on its glabella. Juvenile specimens have been found with only 5 or 6 thoracic segments and about one eighth of adult size, as well as about 2 mm wide.

Oryctocephalus

Qohelet12 · CC0 · 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
OryctocephalinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Corynexochida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Corynexochida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Corynexochida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Oryctocephalidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 9.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 506.5 Mya to 497 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 486.85 Mya.

Cambrian — about 109 of 109 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 109 occurrences540–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences520–518 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences518–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–513 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences513–511 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 7 occurrences509–507 Mya — about 25 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 41 occurrences506–504 Mya — about 26 occurrences504–502 Mya — about 2 occurrences502–500 Mya — about 2 occurrences500–498 Mya — about 2 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 1 occurrence497–495 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences495–493 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences493–491 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences491–489 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences489–488 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences488–486 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences506.5 Mya497 Mya540 Mya486 Mya

109 occurrences of Oryctocephalus 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

109 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

16 formations

Kaili — 27.00°N, 107.00°EKaili — 26.75°N, 108.41°EKaili — 26.40°N, 107.88°EEmigrant — 37.72°N, 117.44°WEmigrant — 37.71°N, 117.45°WEmigrant — 37.63°N, 117.25°WEmigrant — 37.55°N, 117.28°WEmigrant — 37.35°N, 117.83°WPioche Shale — 37.89°N, 114.58°WPioche Shale — 37.94°N, 114.50°WPioche Shale — 37.91°N, 114.41°WPioche Shale — 37.76°N, 114.55°WPioche Shale — 40.00°N, 115.00°WMonola — 37.01°N, 117.79°WMonola — 37.08°N, 117.86°WMonola — 36.94°N, 117.91°WMonola — 37.11°N, 118.18°WKuonamka — 69.66°N, 124.18°ELangston — 42.19°N, 112.25°WKinzers — 40.04°N, 76.31°WKinzers — 40.12°N, 76.30°WBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WCarrara — 37.35°N, 116.13°WCarrara — 37.45°N, 115.73°WCarrara — 37.57°N, 115.76°WMount Whyte — 52.83°N, 119.25°WHess River — 64.53°N, 129.77°WStephen — 51.40°N, 116.48°WEl Gavilán — 29.28°N, 110.58°WSekwi — 63.52°N, 128.68°WMt. Whyte — 51.42°N, 116.45°WSandover — 21.38°S, 135.60°E

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

Oryctocephalus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Oryctocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

303 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Oryctocephalus, 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

26 references

Each of the 109 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. 14 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 Oryctocephalus

Credit
Qohelet12
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oryctocephalus 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 itOryctocephalinae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1886