Platylichas laxatus

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
- PlatylichasPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lichida
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Lichidae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At least 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 454 Mya to 448.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 458.2 Mya to 443.1 Mya.
28 occurrences of Platylichas laxatus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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
28 occurrences- Ordovician100%
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
12 formations
- Solvang Formation7
- Dufton Shales Formation4
- Nakkholmen Formation3
- Furuberget Formation · Kirkerud Group3
- Raheen Formation2
- Fosses Formation2
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Platylichas laxatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Platylichas laxatus and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Platylichas laxatus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
166 taxa- Lonchodomas pennatus13 sites
- Stenopareia glaber13 sites
- Harpidella11 sites
- Remopleurides10 sites
- Flexicalymene (Onnicalymene) jemtlandica8 sites
- Calyptaulax norvegicus7 sites
- Stygina minor7 sites
- Ampyxella aculeata6 sites
- Deacybele gracilis6 sites
- Decoroproetus6 sites
- Ampyxina5 sites
- Atractopyge5 sites
- Illaenus (Parillaenus) fallax5 sites
- Raymondella5 sites
- Tretaspis5 sites
- Tretaspis ceriodes5 sites
- Chasmops extensa4 sites
- Chonetoidea iduna4 sites
- Cybeloides loveni4 sites
- Decoroproetus solenotus4 sites
- Onniella broeggeri4 sites
- Prionocheilus4 sites
- Toxochasmops (Toxochasmops) extensus4 sites
- Trinodus tardus4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Platylichas laxatus, 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
11 references- Late Caradoc-early Ashgill trilobites of the central Oslo Region, Norway7
- Late Caradoc - early Asghill trilobite distribution in the central Oslo Region, Norway4
- The Caradoc brachiopod and trilobite fauna of the Upper Kirkerud Group, Hadeland, Norway3
- The age, stratigraphy and genesis of the Coniston Limestone Group in the southern Lake District3
- The stratigraphy of the Caradoc series in the Cross Fell Inlier3
- Trilobites et Brachiopodes ashgilliens (Ordovicien supérieur) de l'"Assise" de Fosse, Bande de Sambre-Meuse (Belgique)2
- The trilobite fauna of the Raheen Formation (upper Caradoc), Co. Waterford, Ireland2
- The Middle Ordovician of the Oslo Region, Norway, 31. The upper Caradoc trilobites and brachiopods from Vestbraten, Ringerike1
- Трилобиты1
- Paleoecologic aspects of an Ordovician Tretaspis fauna1
- Trinucleid trilobites from the higher Dufton shales of the Caradoc series in the Cross Fell inlier1
Each of the 28 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 Platylichas laxatus
- 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 Platylichas laxatus 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 itPlatylichas through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (McCoy 1846)