Spirifer

Searched as Spirifer greenockensis. The Paleobiology Database treats Spirifer as the accepted name.

Spirifer is a genus of marine brachiopods belonging to the order Spiriferida and family Spiriferidae. Species belonging to the genus lived in the Carboniferous.

Spirifer

Dwergenpaartje · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
SpiriferinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Spiriferida
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Spiriferida
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Spiriferida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At most 121 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 419.62 Mya and 298.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Silurian — about 0 of 7 occurrencesDevonian — about 1 of 7 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 7 of 7 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 7 occurrences422–418 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences418–414 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences414–409 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences409–405 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences405–401 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences401–397 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences397–393 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences393–389 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences389–384 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences384–380 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences380–376 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences376–372 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences372–368 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences368–363 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences363–359 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences359–355 Mya — about 3 occurrences355–351 Mya — about 3 occurrences351–347 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences347–343 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences343–338 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences338–334 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences334–330 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences330–326 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences326–322 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences322–317 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences317–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–309 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences309–305 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences305–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–296 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences422 Mya296 Mya

7 occurrences of Spirifer on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

7 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

Sappington — 46.32°N, 111.59°WSappington — 45.88°N, 111.67°WSappington — 45.91°N, 111.96°WSappington — 45.78°N, 111.73°WSappington — 45.78°N, 111.81°WLodgepole — 45.78°N, 108.50°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Spirifer and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Spirifer and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

1,418 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 804 sites for Spirifer, and this reads 240 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

2 references

Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Spirifer

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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

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 itSpiriferinae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sowerby 1818)