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Westergaardites ✝
| Description | Westergaardites is an Upper Cambrian trilobite that is known from the Eastern Tian Shan (Central Asia). It is related to Triarthrus, but can easily be distinguished from it by an extremely long exoskeleton, anteriorly placed eyes, a thorax of 19 segments with an extremely wide axis, and very narrow pleural regions, pleural spines, and a pygidium with marginal spines. From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westergaardites, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source Data |
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| Rank | genus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomy (GBIF) | Life : Animalia : Arthropoda : Trilobita : Ptychopariida : Olenidae : Westergaardites | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomy (PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Arthropoda : Trilobita : Olenida : Olenidae : Westergaardites | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification (PBDB,GBIF) |
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| Scientific Name | Westergaardites Troedsson, 1937 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opinions (PBDB) |
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| Status (PBDB) | extinct | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taxon Size (PBDB) | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Recorded Appearance | 501 - 485 Ma Cambrian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Recorded Appearance | 499 - 485 Ma Cambrian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Environment | marine (based on Trilobita) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Motility | fast-moving (based on Trilobita) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vision | well-developed (based on Olenidae) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Diet | carnivore (based on Trilobita) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ontogeny | molting,addition of parts (based on Trilobita) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taphonomy | low Mg calcite, chitin (based on Trilobita) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Reference (PBDB) | J. J. Sepkoski, Jr. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 363:1-560 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westergaardites |
Fossil Distribution
Subtaxa
| Name | Status | Common Name(s) | Fossil Occurrences | Oldest | Youngest |
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| Westergaardites pelturaeformis ✝ species | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 6 | 499 Ma Cambrian | 499 Ma Cambrian |
Synonymy List
| Year | Name and Author |
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| 1937 | Westergaardites Troedsson |
| 2002 | Westergaardites Jell and Adrain p. 459 |
| 2002 | Westergaardites Sepkoski, Jr. |
References
Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!
