Phaetonellus

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- EremiproetinaePBDB
- Diet
- deposit feederPBDB, for Proetida
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At least 5.5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 387.95 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 382.31 Mya.
26 occurrences of Phaetonellus on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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
26 occurrences- Devonian100%
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
11 formations
- Stinava-Chabicov Formation3
- Daleje-Trebotov Formation3
- Bicken-Ense Formation3
- Chotec Formation2
- Ohle Formation2
- Stringocephalus-Kalk Formation1
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The named rock units Phaetonellus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Phaetonellus and its relatives
DevonianWhere Phaetonellus and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.
Found in the same rock
288 taxa- Koneprusia11 sites
- Scabriscutellum11 sites
- Leonaspis9 sites
- Crinoidea8 sites
- Kettneraspis elliptica8 sites
- Cyphaspides7 sites
- Thysanopeltis speciosa7 sites
- Ceratocephala6 sites
- Otarionella6 sites
- Tropidocoryphe6 sites
- Tropidocoryphe pseudofilicostata6 sites
- Eremiproetus5 sites
- Eremiproetus dufresnoyi5 sites
- Harpes5 sites
- Leonaspis hoernesii5 sites
- Nautiloidea5 sites
- Pedinopariops degener5 sites
- Proetopeltis (Proetopeltis) neglecta5 sites
- Acanthopyge (Acanthopyge) haueri4 sites
- Acanthopyge (Lobopyge) docekali4 sites
- Aulacopleura bohemica4 sites
- Aulacopleurina peltata4 sites
- Chotecops auspex4 sites
- Chotecops breviceps4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Phaetonellus, 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
12 references- Trilobite assemblages in the Devonian of the Barrandian area and their relations to palaeoenvironments7
- The Bohemian Lower Devonian Stages6
- Die Trilobiten von Greifenstein/Hörre—Ableger einer böhmischen Fauna im Rheinischen Schiefergebirge3
- Trilobiten des juengeren Siluriums sowie des Unter- und Mitteldevons. II.2
- Phaetonellus aus dem Devon des Rhenoherzynikums (Trilobita, Emsium und Eifelium, rechtsrheinisches Schiefergebirge)1
- The phacopid trilobites Austerops McKellar & Chatterton, 2009, Hottonops gen. nov. and Loreleiops gen. nov. from the Devonian of the Ardenno-Rhenish Mountains1
- Eifel-Trilobiten III. Corynexochida, Proetida (2), Harpetida, Phacopida (2), Lichida1
- Die ehemalige Givet-Fossilfundstelle Buechenberg im Unterharz1
- Middle Devonian brachiopods from Horni Benesov in the Nizky Jesenik Mts. (Moravia)1
- Significance of a Tropidoleptus assemblage from the Devonian of the Moravo-Silesian region, Czechoslovakia1
- Trilobiten des juengeren Siluriums sowie des Unter- und Mitteldevons. I. Mit Beitraegen zur Silur-Devon-Stratigraphie einiger Gebiete Marokkos und Oberfrankens1
- Revision of the Middle Devonian trilobites from Horni Benesov in the Nizky Jesenik Mts. (Moravia)1
Each of the 26 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 Phaetonellus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Phaetonellus 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itEremiproetinae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Novak 1890