415 / Paleozoic
Receptaculites
Receptaculites oweni
Spiraled diamond plates formed a calcified pinecone-like body.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 480–360 million years ago
- Final stage
- End of the Devonian
- Geographic range
- Warm carbonate shelves · Widespread
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Receptaculites?
Receptaculites (Receptaculites oweni) was an extinct organism known from About 480–360 million years ago, with a range in Warm carbonate shelves · Widespread.
Life and ecology
It is often interpreted as a large green-algal relative on illuminated seafloors, though alternatives persist.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Receptaculites disappear?
Devonian crises and changing carbonate ecosystems are the broad setting for the end of the group; a specific mechanism is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Receptaculites?
Three-dimensional skeletons preserve the central axis, radial supports and outer plates.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS