Amorphognathus

Amorphognathus is an extinct conodont genus in the family Balognathidae from the Ordovician.

Amorphognathus

Professor Richard J. Aldridge · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
BalognathidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Conodonta
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Conodonta
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Conodonta
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Conodonta

Time the record covers

At least 85 million years on record.

The record covers at least 468 Mya to 382.31 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 477.1 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Ordovician — about 187 of 198 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 10 of 198 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1 of 198 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 1 of 198 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 198 occurrences481–474 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences474–468 Mya — about 2 occurrences468–462 Mya — about 5 occurrences462–456 Mya — about 22 occurrences456–450 Mya — about 41 occurrences450–444 Mya — about 110 occurrences444–437 Mya — about 10 occurrences437–431 Mya — about 4 occurrences431–425 Mya — about 2 occurrences425–419 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences419–413 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413–407 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences407–400 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences400–394 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences394–388 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences388–382 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences382–376 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences376–369 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences369–363 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences363–357 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences357–351 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences351–345 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences345–339 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences339–332 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences332–326 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences326–320 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences320–314 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences314–308 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences308–302 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences302–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences468 Mya382.31 Mya481 Mya295 Mya

198 occurrences of Amorphognathus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

198 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

64 formations

Welling — 34.60°N, 96.63°WWelling — 35.82°N, 94.93°WWelling — 35.74°N, 94.04°WWelling — 34.00°N, 97.00°WZalesie — 50.60°N, 21.70°EAllen Bay — 77.52°N, 83.97°WAllen Bay — 77.48°N, 84.95°WAllen Bay — 79.13°N, 80.90°WAllen Bay — 76.35°N, 93.02°WAllen Bay — 76.78°N, 96.50°WJonstorp — 58.53°N, 14.98°EJonstorp — 60.94°N, 15.08°EWhite Head — 48.52°N, 64.22°WWhite Head — 48.67°N, 65.83°WWolayer — 46.62°N, 12.88°ERobb — 56.63°N, 123.78°WRobb — 56.95°N, 123.75°WAdze — 57.12°N, 18.41°EIrene Bay — 77.52°N, 83.97°WIrene Bay — 76.92°N, 96.73°WIrene Bay — 76.88°N, 96.83°WPortrane Limestone — 53.49°N, 6.10°WPagoda — 28.39°N, 106.40°ETirekhtyakh — 63.97°N, 147.15°EKraluv Dvur — 49.93°N, 14.00°ENoix Limestone — 39.39°N, 90.95°WDenley Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WDenley Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.28°N, 75.14°WBaota — 33.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 119.00°EBaota — 31.00°N, 121.00°EGuniutan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 32.00°N, 119.00°ECaution Creek — 55.93°N, 92.23°WCaution Creek — 56.77°N, 90.83°WCaution Creek — 56.68°N, 88.77°WChasm Creek — 58.62°N, 86.22°WChasm Creek — 57.90°N, 84.25°WMontu — 57.12°N, 18.41°ESchmiedefeld — 50.52°N, 11.22°ECape Phillips — 77.53°N, 83.92°WUggwa Limestone — 46.67°N, 13.00°EDawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amorphognathus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 40 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amorphognathus and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Amorphognathus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

625 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 138 sites for Amorphognathus, 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

57 references

Each of the 198 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. 45 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 Amorphognathus

Source
GBIF
Credit
Professor Richard J. Aldridge
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itBalognathidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Branson and Mehl 1933