Sphenaulax

Sphenaulax

Yale Peabody Museum · CC0 · 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
CraticulariinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Hexactinellida
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Hexactinellida
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Hexactinellida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Hexactinellida
Environment
marinePBDB, for Hexactinellida

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 106.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 26 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 3 of 26 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 26 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 26 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 20 of 26 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 26 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 26 occurrences240–235 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences235–230 Mya — about 1 occurrence230–226 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences197–192 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences192–188 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences188–183 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences183–178 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences178–173 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 8 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 8 occurrences145–140 Mya — about 3 occurrences140–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences227.3 Mya106.3 Mya240 Mya98 Mya

26 occurrences of Sphenaulax 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

26 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

2 formations

Hanwang — 31.45°N, 104.17°EMisone limestone — 45.95°N, 10.83°E

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The named rock units Sphenaulax has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sphenaulax and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

354 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Sphenaulax, 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

Each of the 26 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 Sphenaulax

Source
GBIF
Credit
Yale Peabody Museum
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphenaulax 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCraticulariinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zittel 1877