Spencella
Vorwald, G. R. · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- PtychopariidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Ptychopariidae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Trilobita
Time the record covers
At least 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 515.3 Mya to 486.85 Mya.
20 occurrences of Spencella 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
20 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
7 formations
- Trailer Formation8
- Hillard Limestone Formation5
- Shallow Bay Formation · Cow Head Group2
- Shady Formation1
- Swasey Limestone Formation1
- Wheeler Formation1
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The named rock units Spencella has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Spencella and its relatives
CambrianWhere Spencella and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
61 taxa- Kootenia3 sites
- Brachiopoda2 sites
- Elrathia2 sites
- Kootenia serrata2 sites
- Peronopsis fallax2 sites
- Semisphaerocephalus latus2 sites
- Trilobita2 sites
- Alokistocare1 site
- Altiocculus concavus1 site
- Amecephalina1 site
- Aphelaspis1 site
- Armonia elongata1 site
- Asaphiscus1 site
- Asaphiscus (Blainia) gregarius1 site
- Asaphiscus glaber1 site
- Bathyuriscus1 site
- Bolaspidella1 site
- Brooksella alternata1 site
- Caborcella1 site
- Chanciopsis heteromorphos1 site
- Coosella1 site
- Coosia superba1 site
- Dolichometopidae1 site
- Dorypyge1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Spencella, 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
8 references- Corynexochida and Ptychopariida (Trilobita, Arthropoda) of the Ehmaniella biozone (Middle Cambrian), Utah and Nevada8
- Cambrian trilobites of East-Central Alaska5
- Mid-Cambrian trilobites from the lowest part of the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland2
- Potential Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) for a Cambrian stage boundary defined by the first appearance of the trilobite Ptychagnostus atavus, Drum Mountains, Utah, USA1
- Base of Ptychagnostus atabus Zone, candidate stratotype for base of unnamed international series1
- Mid-Cambrian (Marjuman) trilobites from the Pika Formation, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta1
- Lower and Middle Cambrian fossils from the Shady Fm., Austinville, VA1
- Contributions to the Paleontology of Northwest Georgia1
Each of the 20 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 Spencella
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Vorwald, G. R.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPtychopariidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rasetti 1963