Spirifer opimus

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
- SpiriferPBDB
- 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 least 10 million years on record.
The record covers at least 323.4 Mya to 312.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 306 Mya.
17 occurrences of Spirifer opimus 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
17 occurrences- Carboniferous100%
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
5 formations
- Cabaniss Formation · Cherokee Group3
- Pottsville Formation3
- Krebs Formation · Cherokee Group2
- Redoak Hollow Formation1
- Burgner Formation1
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The named rock units Spirifer opimus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Spirifer opimus and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Spirifer opimus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
271 taxa- Composita subtilita10 sites
- Derbyia crassa9 sites
- Desmoinesia muricatina6 sites
- Neospirifer cameratus5 sites
- Punctospirifer kentuckensis5 sites
- Composita4 sites
- Mesolobus mesolobus lioderma4 sites
- Orbiculoidea missouriensis4 sites
- Pseudorthoceras knoxense4 sites
- Punctospirifer4 sites
- Astartella concentrica3 sites
- Chonetina choteauensis3 sites
- Composita ovata3 sites
- Linoproductus cora3 sites
- Mesolobus mesolobus decipiens3 sites
- Mesolobus mesolobus euampygus3 sites
- Neospirifer dunbari3 sites
- Neospirifer latus3 sites
- Reticulatia huecoensis3 sites
- Rhipidomella penniana3 sites
- Trepospira illinoisensis3 sites
- Ananias nodocostatus2 sites
- Anthracospirifer occiduus2 sites
- Antiquatonia2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Spirifer opimus, 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
6 references- Desmoinesian Brachiopoda and Mollusca from southwest Missouri6
- Upper Paleozoic of Peru4
- Pottsville fauna of Ohio3
- Structure and Stratigraphy of San Francisco Mountains, Western Utah2
- Early Pennsylvanian History of Ely Basin, Nevada1
- Late Mississippian fauna from the Redoak Hollow Formation of southern Oklahoma. Part II. Brachiopoda1
Each of the 17 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 Spirifer opimus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Spirifer opimus 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSpirifer through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Hall 1858)