Spongiophyton

Spongiophyton was a thallose fossil of the early to mid-Devonian, which is notoriously difficult to classify.

No picture of Spongiophyton was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. iDigBio and GBIF were not searched: the Paleobiology Database does not place Spongiophyton firmly enough to tell it from something else bearing the same name, and a search on the name alone returns whichever of them was photographed.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
StreptophytaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 5.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 393.47 Mya to 387.95 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 382.31 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 18 occurrencesDevonian — about 18 of 18 occurrencesDevonian420–419 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences419–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences418–416 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences414–413 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413–411 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences410–409 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences409–407 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences407–406 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences406–405 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences405–404 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences404–402 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences402–401 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences401–400 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences400–398 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences398–397 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences397–396 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences396–394 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 2 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 2 occurrences391–389 Mya — about 2 occurrences389–388 Mya — about 2 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 2 occurrences387–385 Mya — about 2 occurrences385–384 Mya — about 1 occurrence384–383 Mya — about 1 occurrence383–382 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences393.47 Mya387.95 Mya420.4 Mya381.6 Mya

18 occurrences of Spongiophyton on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

18 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

6 formations

Ponta Grossa — 25.43°S, 50.40°WPonta Grossa — 25.08°S, 50.15°WPonta Grossa — 24.50°S, 50.40°WPimenteira — 7.40°S, 41.52°WPimenteira — 7.00°S, 42.00°WPimenteira — 9.55°S, 48.23°WPimenteira — 8.82°S, 48.40°WSextant — 51.00°N, 82.00°WLa Garde — 47.99°N, 66.71°WCampbellton — 48.02°N, 66.47°WSao Domingos — 24.56°S, 50.52°W

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The named rock units Spongiophyton has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spongiophyton and its relatives

Devonian

Where Spongiophyton and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

62 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Spongiophyton, 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

5 references

Each of the 18 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 content0

No picture of Spongiophyton was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

iDigBio and GBIF were not searched: the Paleobiology Database does not place Spongiophyton firmly enough to tell it from something else bearing the same name, and a search on the name alone returns whichever of them was photographed.

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itStreptophyta through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kraeusel 1954