Symphysurus

Symphysurus is a genus of trilobite of the Asaphida order. These fast-moving nektonic carnivores lived in the Ordovician period

Symphysurus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
NileidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Trilobita
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asaphida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Asaphida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Nileidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 482.9 Mya to 449.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 86 occurrencesOrdovician — about 86 of 86 occurrencesOrdovician488–486 Mya — about 1 occurrence486–485 Mya — about 5 occurrences485–483 Mya — about 7 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 7 occurrences482–480 Mya — about 6 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 6 occurrences479–478 Mya — about 6 occurrences478–476 Mya — about 5 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 5 occurrences475–473 Mya — about 5 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 5 occurrences472–470 Mya — about 5 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 5 occurrences469–467 Mya — about 3 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 1 occurrence466–465 Mya — about 1 occurrence465–463 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 1 occurrence457–456 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences452–450 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–447 Mya — about 1 occurrence447–446 Mya — about 1 occurrence446–444 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences482.9 Mya449.5 Mya487.7 Mya444.4 Mya

86 occurrences of Symphysurus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

86 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

44 formations

Yinzhupu — 29.00°N, 115.00°EYinzhupu — 28.00°N, 118.00°EYinzhupu — 30.00°N, 120.00°EYinzhupu — 29.00°N, 119.00°EKomstad — 55.04°N, 14.88°ETøyen — 59.67°N, 9.77°ETøyen — 59.92°N, 10.78°ETøyen — 59.79°N, 10.50°ELatorp — 58.00°N, 14.00°ELatorp — 59.24°N, 14.94°ECeratopyge — 58.00°N, 14.00°ECeratopyge — 57.00°N, 17.00°ECeratopyge — 55.58°N, 14.13°EGuotang — 26.00°N, 108.00°ESaint-Chinian — 43.33°N, 2.53°ESaint-Chinian — 43.44°N, 2.89°ESaint-Chinian — 43.33°N, 2.73°ECouches du Foulon — 43.00°N, 3.00°ECouches du Foulon — 43.47°N, 3.13°EValhallfonna — 79.80°N, 17.76°EHolen — 57.15°N, 16.92°EHolen — 56.89°N, 16.73°EHolen — 56.96°N, 16.80°EChedao — 37.00°N, 107.00°EChedao — 36.00°N, 107.00°EVal d'Homs — 43.00°N, 3.00°EMounio — 43.00°N, 3.00°EYinchupu — 28.81°N, 118.62°ESwan Peak — 40.16°N, 110.40°WBjorkasholmen — 59.14°N, 11.18°EGoutang — 26.00°N, 108.00°ETongzi — 28.00°N, 109.00°ELinxiang — 29.00°N, 110.00°EJiuxi — 29.00°N, 111.00°EPanjiazui — 29.00°N, 111.00°EFengxiang — 31.00°N, 111.00°EHongsiya — 24.00°N, 102.00°EShinianpan — 32.00°N, 118.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Symphysurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Symphysurus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Symphysurus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

579 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 85 sites for Symphysurus, 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

40 references

Each of the 86 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. 28 further references are not listed. 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 Symphysurus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Symphysurus 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.

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 itNileidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Goldfuss 1843