Yunnanocephalus

Yunnanocephalus is a genus of ptychopariid trilobite. It lived during the late Atdabanian and Botomian stages, in what are currently Antarctica, Australia and China. It was a "moderately common" member of the Chengjiang Fauna.

Yunnanocephalus

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
YunnanocephalidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Redlichiida
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Redlichiida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Redlichiida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Yunnanocephalidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Trilobita

Time the record covers

At most 33 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 538.8 Mya and 506.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 38 of 38 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences532–530 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 3 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 6 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 6 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 6 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 6 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 4 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 2 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 1 occurrence513–511 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences539.4 Mya505.9 Mya

38 occurrences of Yunnanocephalus 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

38 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

Yuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 24.00°N, 102.00°EYuanshan — 24.72°N, 102.55°EYu'anshan — 25.55°N, 102.40°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EMernmerna — 31.19°S, 138.87°EMernmerna — 30.79°S, 139.14°EShackleton — 81.93°S, 158.70°EHongjingshao — 24.83°N, 102.83°EHongjingshao — 25.10°N, 102.80°EMernmerna Formation — 31.01°S, 139.24°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Yunnanocephalus and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Yunnanocephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

297 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Yunnanocephalus, 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

15 references

Each of the 38 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. 3 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 content2

Picture of Yunnanocephalus

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itYunnanocephalidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kobayashi 1936