Phyllacanthus imperialis

Phyllacanthus imperialis, also known as the Sputnik urchin, imperial lance urchin, imperial sea urchin, imperial urchin, pencil sea urchin, lance urchin, knobby sputnik sea urchin, mine urchin, and land mine sea urchin, is a species of sea urchins in the family Cidaridae.

Phyllacanthus imperialis

MDC Seamarc Maldives · 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
PhyllacanthusPBDB
Diet
grazer, omnivorePBDB, for Cidaroida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Cidaroida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Cidaroida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cidaroida

Time the record covers

At least 9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 11 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11.63 Mya2.58 Mya16.5 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Phyllacanthus imperialis on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

13 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

3 formations

Futuna Limestone — 18.22°S, 178.78°EFutuna Limestone — 18.45°S, 178.48°ENdalithoni Limestone — 17.23°S, 178.95°EPeliliu Limestone — 6.90°N, 134.13°E

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The named rock units Phyllacanthus imperialis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Phyllacanthus imperialis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Phyllacanthus imperialis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Phyllacanthus imperialis, 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

3 references

Each of the 13 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Phyllacanthus imperialis

Credit
MDC Seamarc Maldives
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itPhyllacanthus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lamarck 1816)