Palaeoscolecida

The palaeoscolecids are a group of extinct ecdysozoan worms resembling armoured priapulids. They are known from the Lower Cambrian to the lower Ludfordian ; they are mainly found as disarticulated sclerites, but are also preserved in many of the Cambrian lagerstätten. They take their name from the typifying genus Palaeoscolex. Other genera include Cricocosmia from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang biota. Their taxonomic affinities within Ecdysozoa have been the subject of debate.

Palaeoscolecida

Martin R. Smith · 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
PalaeoscolecidomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Priapulida
Life habit
shallow infaunalPBDB, for Priapulida
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Priapulida
Vision
blindPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 521 Mya to 425 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 422.7 Mya.

Cambrian — about 103 of 122 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 12 of 122 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 7 of 122 occurrencesSilurian541–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–533 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences533–529 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences529–525 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences525–521 Mya — about 3 occurrences521–517 Mya — about 29 occurrences517–513 Mya — about 33 occurrences513–509 Mya — about 22 occurrences509–505 Mya — about 8 occurrences505–501 Mya — about 2 occurrences501–497 Mya — about 3 occurrences497–493 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences493–489 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences489–485 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences481–477 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477–473 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences473–469 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences469–465 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences465–461 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences461–457 Mya — about 2 occurrences457–453 Mya — about 2 occurrences453–449 Mya — about 5 occurrences449–445 Mya — about 1 occurrence445–441 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences441–436 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences436–432 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences428–424 Mya — about 2 occurrences424–420 Mya — about 3 occurrences521 Mya425 Mya541 Mya420 Mya

122 occurrences of Palaeoscolecida 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

122 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

43 formations

Yuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 25.40°N, 103.38°EYuanshan — 25.72°N, 103.99°EYu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 25.55°N, 102.40°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EElla Island — 74.35°N, 22.77°WElla Island — 74.10°N, 22.98°WLower Comley — 52.56°N, 2.76°WLower Comley — 52.58°N, 2.67°WLower Comley — 52.54°N, 2.80°WWulongqing — 24.95°N, 102.80°EWulongqing — 25.68°N, 102.17°EWulongqing — 24.90°N, 102.82°EQiongzhusi — 24.67°N, 102.92°EQiongzhusi — 24.73°N, 102.57°ESinsk — 61.08°N, 126.58°ERamsay — 34.77°S, 137.72°ERamsay — 34.78°S, 137.75°EBalang — 26.39°N, 107.69°EBalang — 28.42°N, 109.42°EKope — 39.00°N, 84.00°WKuonamka — 70.74°N, 112.98°EKuonamka — 70.22°N, 113.70°EMarsden Sandstone — 35.58°S, 137.50°EMarjum — 39.27°N, 113.31°WLeintwardine — 52.36°N, 2.84°WLeintwardine — 52.38°N, 2.87°WUtica Shale — 43.21°N, 75.46°WChopko — 62.00°N, 129.67°EWhitby — 44.53°N, 80.38°WMosalem — 42.27°N, 90.42°WRacine — 41.65°N, 87.68°WCape Melville — 62.03°S, 57.60°WWirrealpa Limestone — 31.15°S, 138.93°EBastion — 74.35°N, 22.77°WRacine Dolomite — 42.00°N, 88.00°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°W

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The named rock units Palaeoscolecida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeoscolecida and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Palaeoscolecida and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

1,116 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 105 sites for Palaeoscolecida, 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

47 references

Each of the 122 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. 35 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 Palaeoscolecida

Credit
Martin R. Smith
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeoscolecida 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 itPalaeoscolecidomorpha through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conway-Morris and Robison 1986