Plectorthis exfoliata

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- PlectorthisPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Orthida
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Orthida
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Orthida
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At most 22 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 471.3 Mya and 449.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
8 occurrences of Plectorthis exfoliata 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
8 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
2 formations
- Benbolt Formation6
- Day Point Formation · Chazy Group2
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Plectorthis exfoliata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Plectorthis exfoliata and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Plectorthis exfoliata and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
43 taxa- Sphenotreta acutirostris8 sites
- Camerella varians7 sites
- Rostricellula pristina7 sites
- Anolotichia6 sites
- Apatomorpha pulchella6 sites
- Bumastus lioderma6 sites
- Calliops annulatus6 sites
- Camarotoechia6 sites
- Dinorthis interstriata6 sites
- Dinorthis transversa6 sites
- Dystactospongia6 sites
- Eospongia roemeri6 sites
- Eurychilina latimarginata6 sites
- Girvanella6 sites
- Glyptorthis bellarugosa6 sites
- Holopea scrutator6 sites
- Homotelus elongatus6 sites
- Illaenus fieldi6 sites
- Leperditia6 sites
- Maclurites magnus6 sites
- Mimella6 sites
- Mimella globosa6 sites
- Mimella vulgaris6 sites
- Multicostella6 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Plectorthis exfoliata, 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
2 references- Stratigraphy of the Lower Middle Ordovician of Tazewell County, Virginia6
- The Brachiopoda and Ostracoda of the Chazyan2
Each of the 8 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Plectorthis exfoliata
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Plectorthis exfoliata 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 itPlectorthis through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Raymond 1905)