Cameroceras

Cameroceras, from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára), meaning "chamber", and κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn", is an extinct genus of endocerid cephalopod which lived in equatorial oceans during the entire Ordovician period. Like other endocerids, it was an orthocone, meaning that its shell was fairly straight and pointed. It was particularly abundant and widespread in the Late Ordovician, inhabiting the shallow tropical seas in and around Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia.

Cameroceras

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikidata/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
EndoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Endocerida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Endocerida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Endocerida
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 477.1 Mya to 449.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 89 occurrencesOrdovician — about 89 of 89 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 89 occurrences488–486 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences486–485 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences485–483 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences482–480 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences479–477 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 4 occurrences476–474 Mya — about 4 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 4 occurrences473–471 Mya — about 4 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 4 occurrences470–468 Mya — about 4 occurrences468–466 Mya — about 1 occurrence466–465 Mya — about 1 occurrence465–463 Mya — about 1 occurrence463–462 Mya — about 1 occurrence462–460 Mya — about 2 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 3 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 1 occurrence457–456 Mya — about 6 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 6 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 9 occurrences453–451 Mya — about 9 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 8 occurrences450–448 Mya — about 4 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 4 occurrences447–445 Mya — about 3 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences444–442 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences477.1 Mya449.5 Mya487.7 Mya442.2 Mya

89 occurrences of Cameroceras 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

89 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

43 formations

Honghuayuan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 105.00°EHonghuayuan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EDunleith — 43.00°N, 91.00°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 44.98°N, 93.26°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 44.92°N, 93.02°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 45.00°N, 93.00°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 43.00°N, 91.00°WBoda Limestone — 61.17°N, 14.71°EBoda Limestone — 61.05°N, 15.20°EBoda Limestone — 60.97°N, 15.13°EDenley Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WDenley Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.28°N, 75.14°WLianjiashan — 39.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 41.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 119.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 114.00°ENavas de Estena — 39.00°N, 4.00°WKullsberg — 61.05°N, 15.20°EKullsberg — 60.37°N, 14.87°EKullsberg — 60.92°N, 15.10°EWaynesville — 39.45°N, 83.83°WBull Fork — 39.39°N, 83.92°WBull Fork — 38.14°N, 83.72°WGlenwood — 45.00°N, 93.00°WPlatteville — 45.00°N, 93.00°WGrand Detour — 43.00°N, 91.00°WNachusa — 43.00°N, 91.00°WQuimbys Mill — 43.00°N, 91.00°WLiangJiaShan — 40.00°N, 123.00°ELiangJiaShan — 42.00°N, 126.00°EShakopee — 45.05°N, 92.80°WShakopee — 44.50°N, 92.90°WBardahessiagh — 54.60°N, 6.87°WGaodongkou — 30.00°N, 103.00°EMeitan — 27.00°N, 107.00°ETaohuashi — 29.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 111.00°ENanjinguan — 31.00°N, 111.00°ECummingsville — 45.00°N, 93.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cameroceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cameroceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Cameroceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,040 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 80 sites for Cameroceras, 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

36 references

Each of the 89 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. 24 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 content2

Picture of Cameroceras

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itEndoceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad 1842