Perspicaris

Perspicaris an extinct genus of bivalved arthropod from the Cambrian period. Fossils have been found in North America, primarily the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada but also possibly the Wheeler Shale, Marjum Formation, Pioche Shale and Bloomington Formation. Two named species are known from the Burgess Shale Perspicaris dictynna and Perspicaris recondita, which differ in maximum size, as well as proportions of the tail. Both species have a pair of stalked eyes, as well as a pair of large segmented antennae. The tail is forked and spiny. They are thought to have been active swimmers (nektonic).

Perspicaris

Qohelet12 · CC BY-SA 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
PerspicarididaePBDB
Diet
detritivore, omnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
fast-movingPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 514.5 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 31 of 31 occurrencesCambrian522–521 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 4 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 4 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 4 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 4 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 2 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences504–503 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences502–502 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences501–500 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences500–499 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences497–497 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences514.5 Mya504.5 Mya521.5 Mya496.5 Mya

31 occurrences of Perspicaris 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

31 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

7 formations

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WWheeler Shale — 39.29°N, 113.31°WStephen — 51.40°N, 116.48°WStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WMarjum — 39.00°N, 113.00°WMarjum — 39.27°N, 113.31°WNiutitang — 27.67°N, 106.68°EPioche Shale — 37.92°N, 114.61°WPioche — 37.80°N, 114.57°W

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

Perspicaris and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Perspicaris and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

320 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Perspicaris, 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

9 references

Each of the 31 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 Perspicaris

Credit
Qohelet12
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itPerspicarididae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Briggs 1977