Ovalocephalus

Searched as Ovalocephalus primitivus extraneus. The Paleobiology Database treats Ovalocephalus as the accepted name.

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

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
HammatocneminaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Pliomeridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 19 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 477.1 Mya and 458.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 4 of 4 occurrencesOrdovician478–477 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences476–476 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences475–474 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences474–474 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences472–472 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences466–466 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences464–464 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences462–462 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences460–460 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences458–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477.6 Mya457.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Ovalocephalus 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

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

1 formation

Dawangou — 40.64°N, 79.50°E

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

Ovalocephalus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Ovalocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

524 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 91 sites for Ovalocephalus, 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

1 reference

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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Ovalocephalus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

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

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

No 3D scan of Ovalocephalus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHammatocneminae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Koroleva 1959