Taklamakania

Taklamakania is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield that is subsemicircular, carrying genal spines and a forward directed spine on the central raised area, with the front of the glabella inflated and the natural fracture lines of the cephalon coinciding with its margin. It is easily distinguished from most other raphiophorids by the 3 thorax segments. Pseudampyxina, Nanshanaspis, and Kongqiaoheia also have only 3 such segments, but all three lack the frontal spine that emanates from the glabellum of Taklamakania species. All other raphiophorid genera have at least 5 thorax segments. Three species, T. tarimensis, T. tarimheensis, and T. xinjiangensis, have been assigned to this genus so far.

Taklamakania

Apokryltaros · 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
RaphiophoridaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Trilobita
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Trilobita
Vision
blindPBDB, for Raphiophoridae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 8.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 449.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 468 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Ordovician — about 30 of 30 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 30 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences462–462 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 2 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 2 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 3 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 3 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 3 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 3 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 3 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 3 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences443–443 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458.2 Mya449.5 Mya468.5 Mya442.6 Mya

30 occurrences of Taklamakania 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

30 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

7 formations

YinGan — 41.00°N, 79.00°EYinGan — 40.64°N, 79.50°ESaergan — 40.64°N, 79.50°EDomusnovas — 39.33°N, 8.67°ETangtou — 32.07°N, 119.26°EHuangnekang — 30.98°N, 113.11°EYinpingshan — 41.22°N, 87.57°EDaduhe — 27.57°N, 104.92°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Taklamakania and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Taklamakania and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

129 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Taklamakania, 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

9 references

Each of the 30 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 Taklamakania

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

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 itRaphiophoridae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhang 1980