Pygocephalomorpha

The order Pygocephalomorpha is an extinct group of peracarid crustaceans. Pygocephalomorpha appeared in the Late Devonian, were abundant from the Carboniferous era until their extinction in the Early Permian era.

Pygocephalomorpha

Tim Astrop, William Norris · CC BY 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
PeracaridaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Malacostraca
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Malacostraca
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 99 million years on record.

The record covers at least 358.86 Mya to 259.857 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 365.2 Mya to 254.14 Mya.

Devonian — about 3 of 26 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 14 of 26 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 9 of 26 occurrencesPermian367–364 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences364–360 Mya — about 2 occurrences360–356 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences352–348 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences348–344 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences344–340 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences340–337 Mya — about 2 occurrences337–333 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences333–329 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences329–325 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences321–317 Mya — about 2 occurrences317–314 Mya — about 3 occurrences314–310 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences310–306 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences302–298 Mya — about 1 occurrence290–287 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences287–283 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences283–279 Mya — about 2 occurrences279–275 Mya — about 2 occurrences275–271 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences267–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences263–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–256 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences256–252 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences358.86 Mya259.857 Mya367 Mya252 Mya

26 occurrences of Pygocephalomorpha on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

26 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

12 formations

Gullane — 56.04°N, 2.83°WGullane — 55.98°N, 3.26°WTongziyan — 24.83°N, 117.06°ETongziyan — 25.05°N, 117.00°EIrati — 30.50°S, 54.75°WIrati — 30.14°S, 52.05°WIrati — 30.39°S, 54.59°WBois des Mouches — 50.57°N, 5.68°EBois des Mouches — 50.34°N, 4.87°ELongtan — 27.70°N, 113.14°EPocono — 41.22°N, 78.92°WEvieux — 50.45°N, 5.06°ECarbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WWettin — 51.63°N, 11.95°EMiddle Coal Measures — 52.98°N, 1.28°WManse Burn — 55.92°N, 4.33°WScottish Lower Coal Measures — 55.85°N, 3.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pygocephalomorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pygocephalomorpha and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Pygocephalomorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

157 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Pygocephalomorpha, 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

19 references

Each of the 26 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. 7 further references are not listed. 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 Pygocephalomorpha

Credit
Tim Astrop, William Norris
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pygocephalomorpha 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 itPeracarida through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Beurlen 1930