Pygope

Pygope is an extinct genus of brachiopods belonging to the family Pygopidae. These brachiopods lived in open sea from the Jurassic Period, Kimmeridgian age up to Cretaceous Period, Barremian age. Some of the species are characterised by a smaller or larger perforation through the entire shell in older specimens, while others just have a depression somewhere on the midline. Younger specimens of the perforated species develop a heart-shape and subsequently both extensions merge, thus encircling a central passage which is in fact entirely outside the shell.

Pygope

Francisco Ruiz Contreras · CC BY-SA 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
PygopinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Terebratulida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Terebratulida
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Terebratulida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 137.05 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 162 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 81 of 162 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 80 of 162 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 162 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 162 occurrences163–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–157 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences157–153 Mya — about 1 occurrence153–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 28 occurrences147–144 Mya — about 43 occurrences144–140 Mya — about 30 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 31 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 13 occurrences134–130 Mya — about 5 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 1 occurrence127–124 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences104–101 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences101–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154.8 Mya137.05 Mya163 Mya64 Mya

162 occurrences of Pygope on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

162 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

9 formations

Dursztyn — 49.00°N, 20.00°EDursztyn — 50.40°N, 19.06°ESzentivánhegy Limestone — 47.17°N, 17.79°EMogyorósdomb Limestone — 47.17°N, 17.79°ELysa — 49.00°N, 20.00°ECzorsztyn — 49.00°N, 20.00°EPalnatokes Bjerg — 72.56°N, 22.52°WPalnatokes Bjerg — 74.59°N, 19.57°WSteinmühl — 47.91°N, 14.35°EDurstyn — 49.00°N, 20.00°EFonyaszo Limestone — 46.19°N, 18.46°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pygope has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 102 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pygope and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Pygope and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

158 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 77 sites for Pygope, 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

20 references

Each of the 162 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. 8 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 content2

Picture of Pygope

Credit
Francisco Ruiz Contreras
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itPygopinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Link 1830