Rhinocarcinosoma

Rhinocarcinosoma is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Rhinocarcinosoma have been discovered in deposits ranging of Late Silurian age in the United States, Canada and Vietnam. The genus contains three species, the American R. cicerops and R. vaningeni and the Vietnamese R. dosonensis. The generic name is derived from the related genus Carcinosoma, and the Greek ῥινός, referring to the unusual shovel-shaped protrusion on the front of the carapace of Rhinocarcinosoma, its most distinctive feature.

Rhinocarcinosoma

John Mason Clarke (1857-1925) and Rudolf Ruedemann (1864-1956) · 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
CarcinosomatidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida

Time the record covers

At most 24 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 443.1 Mya and 419.62 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 0 of 5 occurrencesSilurian — about 5 of 5 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 5 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences443–442 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences442–441 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences441–440 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–440 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–439 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences439–438 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences438–437 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences437–436 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences436–435 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences435–435 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences435–434 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences434–433 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences433–432 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences432–431 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences431–431 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences431–430 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences430–429 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences429–428 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences428–427 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences427–426 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences426–426 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences426–425 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences425–424 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences424–423 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences423–422 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences422–422 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences422–421 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences421–420 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences420–419 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences443.6 Mya419.1 Mya

5 occurrences of Rhinocarcinosoma on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

5 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

3 formations

Shawangunk — 40.98°N, 75.14°WShawangunk — 41.47°N, 74.54°WDo Son — 20.71°N, 106.77°ELeopold — 73.86°N, 90.25°W

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

Rhinocarcinosoma and its relatives

Silurian

Where Rhinocarcinosoma and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

11 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Rhinocarcinosoma, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

3 references

Each of the 5 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 Rhinocarcinosoma

Credit
John Mason Clarke (1857-1925) and Rudolf Ruedemann (1864-1956)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rhinocarcinosoma 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 itCarcinosomatidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.