Argonauticeras
Argonauticeras is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod genus that lived during the latter part of the Early Cretaceous, included in the Lytoceratida and found in lower and possibly middle Aptian marine sediments. It has been thought of as a subgenus of Ammonoceratites.

Dr. René Hoffmann · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- TetragonitidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Ammonoidea
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Ammonoidea
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Ammonoidea
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Time the record covers
At least 27 million years on record.
The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 93.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 89.8 Mya.
18 occurrences of Argonauticeras on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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
18 occurrencesThese 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
4 formations
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The named rock units Argonauticeras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Argonauticeras and its relatives
Early CretaceousWhere Argonauticeras and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
231 taxa- Eotetragonites wintunius6 sites
- Desmoceras (Desmoceras) latidorsatum5 sites
- Anagaudryceras4 sites
- Douvilleiceras inaequinodum4 sites
- Douvilleiceras mammillatum4 sites
- Melchiorites indigenes4 sites
- Ammonoceratites3 sites
- Cymatoceras sakalavum3 sites
- Hypophylloceras onoense3 sites
- Metahamites3 sites
- Neithea quinquecostata3 sites
- Panopea3 sites
- Perissoptera3 sites
- Pictetia3 sites
- Protanisoceras3 sites
- Rhynchonella3 sites
- Roberticeras hourcqi3 sites
- Acanthoplites gardneri2 sites
- Aioloceras besairiei2 sites
- Beudanticeras2 sites
- Concinnithyris obesa2 sites
- Epanisoceras2 sites
- Fossarus2 sites
- Gabbioceras2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Argonauticeras, 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- Geologie de Madagascar I. Les Terrains Sedimentaires5
- Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic units of Northern California5
- Lower Cretaceous deposits in California and Oregon2
- The genus Zuercherella Casey, 1954 in the Upper Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) of the Cottonwood District, Northern California1
- An early Cenomanian ammonite fauna from near Lindi, Tanzania1
- Part V. Upper Cretaceous ammonites from the Monobe area, Shikoku1
- Mesozoic and ? Tertiary rocks of Quatsino Sound, Vancouver Island, Bristish Columbia1
- Die geologische Entwicklung von Süd-Mozambique seit der Unterkreide und die Ammoniten-Fauna von Unterkreide und Cenoman1
- Atlas des fossiles caractéristiques de Madagascar (Ammonites). Fascicule IX (Aptien)1
Each of the 18 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 Argonauticeras
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Dr. René Hoffmann
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Argonauticeras was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itTetragonitidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Anderson 1938)