Raphiophorus

Raphiophorus is a genus of the family Raphiophoridae in the Ordovician and Silurian periods. It has been reported from East Asia, North Africa, North and South America, and especially Europe.

Raphiophorus

via iDigBio · 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
RaphiophorinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
blindPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 54 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 422.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.4 Mya to 419.62 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 36 occurrencesOrdovician — about 22 of 36 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 14 of 36 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 36 occurrences488–485 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences485–483 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences483–481 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences481–478 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences478–476 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences476–474 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences474–472 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences472–469 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences469–467 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences467–465 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences465–462 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 1 occurrence460–458 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences458–455 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences455–453 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 1 occurrence451–448 Mya — about 3 occurrences448–446 Mya — about 6 occurrences446–444 Mya — about 3 occurrences444–441 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences441–439 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences439–437 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences434–432 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences432–430 Mya — about 2 occurrences430–428 Mya — about 3 occurrences428–425 Mya — about 3 occurrences425–423 Mya — about 3 occurrences423–421 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences421–418 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences477.1 Mya422.7 Mya488 Mya418 Mya

36 occurrences of Raphiophorus 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

36 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

21 formations

Motol — 50.08°N, 14.47°EMotol — 50.00°N, 17.78°EMotol — 50.00°N, 14.22°EJerrestad Shale — 57.78°N, 14.18°EFjacka Shale — 61.00°N, 15.00°EFjacka Shale — 60.00°N, 16.00°EJerrestad — 55.99°N, 13.30°EElton Beds — 52.37°N, 2.73°WZalesia — 50.77°N, 21.45°ECrugan Mudstone — 53.00°N, 4.00°WDwyfor Mudstone — 53.00°N, 4.00°WRhiwlas Limestone — 53.00°N, 3.00°WDobrotiva — 50.00°N, 14.00°ETangtou — 32.00°N, 119.00°EKopanina — 49.93°N, 14.18°ECoalbrookdale — 52.00°N, 2.00°WSt. Clair Limestone — 35.77°N, 91.63°WFluminimaggiore — 39.50°N, 8.50°EShoul Limestone — 34.03°N, 6.85°WSkelgill — 52.67°N, 2.00°WSarka — 50.00°N, 14.00°EPyle Mountain Argillite — 46.68°N, 68.22°WBohdalec — 50.08°N, 14.52°ESort Tepe — 37.28°N, 43.56°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Raphiophorus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Raphiophorus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Raphiophorus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

548 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Raphiophorus, 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

30 references

Each of the 36 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. 18 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 Raphiophorus

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Raphiophorus 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 itRaphiophorinae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Angelin 1854