Pectocaris

Pectocaris is an extinct genus of bivalved arthropods from the Cambrian Maotianshan Shales, Yunnan Province of China. There are currently four known species within the genus.

Pectocaris

Changfei Jin​, Hong Chen​, Huijuan Mai, Xianguang Hou​, Xianfeng Yang, Dayou Zhai​ · CC BY 4.0 · 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
PectocariidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 6.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 509.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 505.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 25 of 25 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–531 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences531–530 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences526–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–521 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 1 occurrence520–519 Mya — about 1 occurrence519–517 Mya — about 1 occurrence517–516 Mya — about 1 occurrence516–515 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 2 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 5 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 5 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 5 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 2 occurrences516 Mya509.7 Mya539.5 Mya504.6 Mya

25 occurrences of Pectocaris 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

25 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

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 25.40°N, 103.38°EYu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EHongjingshao — 24.83°N, 102.83°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Pectocaris and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Pectocaris and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

299 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Pectocaris, 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

7 references

Each of the 25 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 Pectocaris

Credit
Changfei Jin​, Hong Chen​, Huijuan Mai, Xianguang Hou​, Xianfeng Yang, Dayou Zhai​
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pectocaris 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 itPectocariidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hou 1999