Aphetoceras

Aphetoceras, from Ancient Greek ἄφετος (áphetos), meaning "loose", and κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn", is a genus of tarphycerid cephalopod within the Estonioceratidae; loosely coiled without an impression along the dorsal margin; early whorls barely reaching, separating then diverging in the final mature whorl; weakly ribbed in some. The cross section of Aphetoceras is higher than wide, making it compressed in form. The dorsum, along the inner curve, is more broadly rounded than the venter which lies along the outer curve. The siphuncle is relatively large, located near but not at the ventral margin; lined with secondary deposits. Chambers are empty.

Aphetoceras

Daderot · CC0 · 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
EstonioceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Tarphycerida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 481.7 Mya to 469.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 458.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 20 occurrencesOrdovician — about 20 of 20 occurrencesOrdovician487–486 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences486–485 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences485–484 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences484–483 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 3 occurrences482–481 Mya — about 3 occurrences481–480 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences479–478 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences478–477 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 1 occurrence476–476 Mya — about 1 occurrence476–475 Mya — about 1 occurrence475–474 Mya — about 1 occurrence474–473 Mya — about 1 occurrence473–472 Mya — about 1 occurrence472–471 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences481.7 Mya469.4 Mya487.4 Mya457.6 Mya

20 occurrences of Aphetoceras 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

20 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

12 formations

Rochdale — 41.44°N, 74.36°WRochdale — 43.49°N, 73.38°WNaylor Ledge — 45.04°N, 73.07°WCotter — 36.21°N, 83.29°WCotter — 37.64°N, 93.09°WJefferson City — 36.95°N, 92.66°WJefferson City — 37.97°N, 91.69°WRich Fountain — 38.58°N, 92.17°WFort Ann — 43.91°N, 73.42°WHoneycut — 30.27°N, 97.74°WYinshan — 41.00°N, 79.00°EBoat Harbour — 50.71°N, 57.33°WOgdensburg — 44.68°N, 75.52°WYijianfang — 40.13°N, 78.83°ECroisaphuill — 58.56°N, 4.77°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aphetoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aphetoceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Aphetoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

113 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Aphetoceras, 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

9 references

Each of the 20 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. 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 Aphetoceras

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aphetoceras was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itEstonioceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt 1894