Thoracocare

Thoracocare is a minute to very small trilobite, that lived during part of the Middle Cambrian in what are today the states of Idaho, Nevada and Utah. It is the only trilobite known with just two thorax segments outside most members of the Agnostida order. It can be distinguished from Agnostida by the very wide subquadrate glabella, parallel-side widening forward in the largest specimen, with the full front side touching the border. Two species are known, one, T. idahoensis, only from pygidia.

Thoracocare

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
OryctocephalidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Corynexochida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Corynexochida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Corynexochida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Oryctocephalidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At least 4.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 505.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 515.3 Mya to 504.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 5 of 5 occurrencesCambrian515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–514 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–510 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences509–509 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences508–508 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences508–508 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences506–506 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences506–506 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences505–505 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences509.7 Mya505.3 Mya515.8 Mya504 Mya

5 occurrences of Thoracocare on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

5 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

3 formations

Carrara — 39.16°N, 119.83°WCarrara — 37.35°N, 116.13°WLangston — 42.20°N, 112.25°WLead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°W

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

Thoracocare and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Thoracocare and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

51 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Thoracocare, 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

3 references

Each of the 5 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 Thoracocare

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itOryctocephalidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Robison and Campbell 1974