Sicyophorus
Sicyophorus is a genus of archaeopriapulid known from the Chengjiang biota; synonymous with Protopriapulites haikouensis.

Prehistorica · 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
- PriapulidaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Priapulida
Time the record covers
At most 33 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 538.8 Mya and 506.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
16 occurrences of Sicyophorus 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
16 occurrences- Cambrian100%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Sicyophorus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Sicyophorus and its relatives
CambrianWhere Sicyophorus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
244 taxa- Heliomedusa orienta9 sites
- Kunmingella douvillei9 sites
- Leanchoilia illecebrosa9 sites
- Mafangscolex sinensis9 sites
- Cricocosmia jinningensis8 sites
- Misszhouia longicaudata8 sites
- Selkirkia sinica8 sites
- Eoredlichia intermediata7 sites
- Isoxys auritus7 sites
- Lingulellotreta malongensis7 sites
- Yunnanocephalus yunnanensis7 sites
- Cardiodictyon catenulum6 sites
- Cindarella eucalla6 sites
- Eoglossa chengjiangensis6 sites
- Naraoia6 sites
- Naraoia spinosa6 sites
- Amplectobelua symbrachiata5 sites
- Branchiocaris yunnanensis5 sites
- Cambrorhytium5 sites
- Corynetis brevis5 sites
- Fuxianhuia protensa5 sites
- Hazelia5 sites
- Isoxys paradoxus5 sites
- Paraleptomitella dictyodroma5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Sicyophorus, 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
7 references- Taphonomy and Palaeoecology of the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota from Eastern Yunnan, China5
- Diversity and species abundance patterns of the early Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota from China3
- A Chengjiang-type fossil assemblage from the Hongjingshao Formation (Cambrian Stage 3) at Chenggong, Kunming, Yunnan2
- Community palaeoecology of the early Cambrian Maotianshan Shale biota: Ecological dominance of priapulid worms2
- Lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-type fossil associations of South China2
- Spatial variation in the diversity and composition of the Lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota, Southwest China1
- Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna in eastern Yunnan, CHina1
Each of the 16 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 Sicyophorus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Prehistorica
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Sicyophorus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Sicyophorus”
- 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 itPriapulida through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.