Protichnites

Protichnites is an ichnogenus of trace fossil consisting of the imprints made by the walking activity of certain arthropods. It consists of two rows of tracks and a medial furrow between the two rows. This furrow, which may be broken, set at an angle, and of varying width and depth, is thought to be the result of the tail region contacting the substrate.

A picture published with the record for Protichnites. What it shows has not been checked.

Kennethcgass at English Wikipedia · Public Domain · 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
IchnofossilsPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 471.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 525.5 Mya to 457.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 1 of 2 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 1 of 2 occurrencesOrdovician527–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–522 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences520–517 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences517–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences472–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–468 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences468–465 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences465–463 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences463–461 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences461–458 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences458–456 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516 Mya471.3 Mya527 Mya456 Mya

2 occurrences of Protichnites 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

2 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

2 formations

Tal — 30.45°N, 78.08°EAylmer — 45.37°N, 75.70°W

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The named rock units Protichnites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Protichnites and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Protichnites and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

53 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Protichnites, 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

Each of the 2 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 Protichnites

Credit
Kennethcgass at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protichnites 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.

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 itIchnofossils through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1852