  Lattice QCD studies on fluctuations and correlations of charm quantum number
have established that deconfinement of charm degrees of freedom sets in around
the chiral crossover temperature, $T_c$, i.e. charm degrees of freedom carrying
fractional baryonic charge start to appear. By reexamining those same lattice
QCD data we show that, in addition to the contributions from quark-like
excitations, the partial pressure of charm degrees of freedom may still contain
significant contributions from open-charm meson and baryon-like excitations
associated with integral baryonic charges for temperatures up to $1.2~ T_c$.
Charm quark-quasiparticles become the dominant degrees of freedom for
temperatures $T>1.2~ T_c$.
