Palaeolenus

Palaeolenus is an extinct genus of ptychopariid trilobites of the family Palaeolenidae. Species lived during the later part of the Botomian stage of the Cambrian Period, which lasted from approximately 524 to 518.5 million years ago. This faunal stage was part of the Cambrian Period

Palaeolenus

Dwergenpaartje · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PalaeolenidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Redlichiida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Redlichiida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Redlichiida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Palaeolenidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 15 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 506.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 17 of 17 occurrencesCambrian522–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 2 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 2 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 2 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 2 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences509–509 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences508–508 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521.5 Mya506 Mya

17 occurrences of Palaeolenus 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

17 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

4 formations

Wulongqing — 24.95°N, 102.80°EWulongqing — 25.68°N, 102.17°EWulongqing — 24.78°N, 102.82°EJindingshan — 27.55°N, 106.23°EHuanglianba — 27.13°N, 106.82°EYuxiansi — 29.33°N, 103.47°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Palaeolenus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Palaeolenus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

26 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Palaeolenus, 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

5 references

Each of the 17 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 Palaeolenus

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeolenus 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.

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 itPalaeolenidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mansuy 1912