Polycoscinus
Abadie, Joseph · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- PolycoscinidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
- Life habit
- intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Archaeocyatha
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Porifera
Time the record covers
At most 33 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 538.8 Mya and 506.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
23 occurrences of Polycoscinus 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
23 occurrences- Cambrian100%
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
- Ajax Limestone Formation9
- Wilkawillina Limestone Formation · Hawker Group5
- Parara Formation2
- Fitzroy Tillite Formation2
- Moorowie Formation1
- Oraparinna Shale Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Polycoscinus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Polycoscinus and its relatives
CambrianWhere Polycoscinus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
40 taxa- Anaptyctocyathus2 sites
- Erismacoscinus2 sites
- Pycnoidocyathus2 sites
- Spirocyathella2 sites
- Thalamocyathus2 sites
- Tumuliolynthus2 sites
- "Protophaeretra" spp.1 site
- Acanthinocyathus1 site
- Agyrekocyathus1 site
- Ajacicyathus1 site
- Aporosocyathus1 site
- Archaeopharetra1 site
- Bija1 site
- Chabakovicyathus1 site
- Dokidocyathus1 site
- Ethmocyathus1 site
- Favilynthus1 site
- Flexanulus1 site
- Girvanella1 site
- Gordonophyton1 site
- Gravestockia1 site
- Heteractinida1 site
- Khasaktia1 site
- Kisasacyathus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Polycoscinus, 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
6 references- Archaeocyatha from lower parts of the Lower Cambrian carbonate sequence in South Australia14
- An Early Cambrian archaeocyath-trilobite fauna in limestone erratics from the Upper Carboniferous Fitzroy Tillite Formation, Falkland Islands2
- Early Cambrian archaeocyaths from glacial erratics of King George Island (South Shetland Islands), Antarctica2
- Archaeocyaths from Yorke Peninsula, South Australia and archaeocyathan Early Cambrian zonation2
- The oldest tabulate coral and the associated Archaeocyatha, Lower Cambrian, Flinders Ranges, South Australia2
- Shackleton Limestone archaeocyaths1
Each of the 23 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 Polycoscinus
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Abadie, Joseph
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Polycoscinus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPolycoscinidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.