Tuzoia

Tuzoia is an extinct genus of large bivalved arthropod known from Early to Middle Cambrian marine environments from what is now North America, Australia, China, Europe and Siberia. The large, domed carapace reached lengths of 180 millimetres (7.1 in), making them amongst the largest known Cambrian arthropods.

Tuzoia

Charles Elmer Resser · CC0 · 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
TuzoiidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 512.1 Mya to 471.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 516 Mya to 457.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 49 of 50 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 1 of 50 occurrencesOrdovician517–515 Mya — about 3 occurrences515–513 Mya — about 11 occurrences513–511 Mya — about 8 occurrences511–509 Mya — about 6 occurrences509–507 Mya — about 7 occurrences507–505 Mya — about 7 occurrences505–503 Mya — about 2 occurrences503–501 Mya — about 2 occurrences501–499 Mya — about 2 occurrences499–497 Mya — about 1 occurrence472–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–456 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512.1 Mya471.3 Mya517 Mya456 Mya

50 occurrences of Tuzoia 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

50 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

18 formations

Wulongqing — 24.95°N, 102.80°EWulongqing — 25.68°N, 102.17°EBurgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WKinzers — 40.04°N, 76.31°WKinzers — 40.07°N, 76.37°WBalang — 28.42°N, 109.42°EMarjum — 39.00°N, 113.00°WMarjum — 39.27°N, 113.31°WPioche Shale — 37.92°N, 114.61°WPioche Shale — 37.77°N, 114.56°WParker Slate — 44.48°N, 73.21°WParker Slate — 44.74°N, 73.16°WPioche — 40.64°N, 111.69°WPioche — 37.80°N, 114.57°WStephen — 51.17°N, 116.08°WMarsden Sandstone — 35.58°S, 137.50°EMarjum Limestone — 39.22°N, 113.40°WJince — 49.78°N, 13.97°ELead Bell Shale — 42.00°N, 112.00°WSwan Peak — 41.55°N, 111.96°WWheeler Shale — 39.29°N, 113.31°WMantou — 36.50°N, 118.70°EParker — 44.73°N, 73.15°WZhangxia — 35.13°N, 118.07°E

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

Tuzoia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Tuzoia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

538 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Tuzoia, 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

21 references

Each of the 50 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. 9 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 Tuzoia

Credit
Charles Elmer Resser
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tuzoia 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 itTuzoiidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1912