Ceratiocaris

Ceratiocaris is a genus of paleozoic phyllocarid crustaceans whose fossils are found in marine strata from the Upper Ordovician until the genus' extinction during the Silurian. They are typified by eight short thoracic segments, seven longer abdominal somites and an elongated pretelson somite. Their carapace is slightly oval shaped; they have many ridges parallel to the ventral margin and possess a horn at the anterior end. They are well known from the Silurian Eramosa formation of Ontario, Canada.

Ceratiocaris

Kennethcgass · CC BY 4.0 · 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
CeratiocarididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Phyllocarida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Phyllocarida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Phyllocarida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 104 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 372.15 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 53 occurrencesOrdovician — about 10 of 53 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 37 of 53 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 6 of 53 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 53 occurrences489–485 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences485–481 Mya — about 1 occurrence481–476 Mya — about 1 occurrence476–472 Mya — about 2 occurrences472–467 Mya — about 2 occurrences467–463 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences463–458 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences458–454 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences454–449 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences449–445 Mya — about 2 occurrences445–441 Mya — about 1 occurrence441–436 Mya — about 2 occurrences436–432 Mya — about 3 occurrences432–427 Mya — about 1 occurrence427–423 Mya — about 9 occurrences423–418 Mya — about 23 occurrences418–414 Mya — about 2 occurrences414–410 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences410–405 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences405–401 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences401–396 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences396–392 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences374–370 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences370–365 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences365–361 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences361–356 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences477.1 Mya372.15 Mya489 Mya356 Mya

53 occurrences of Ceratiocaris on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

53 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

25 formations

Pozary — 49.93°N, 14.18°EPozary — 50.08°N, 14.47°EPozary — 49.90°N, 14.02°EPozary — 50.00°N, 14.35°EKopanina — 50.08°N, 14.47°EKopanina — 50.00°N, 14.35°EBrandon Bridge — 43.03°N, 88.21°WFiddlers Green — 42.85°N, 78.80°WMotol — 49.95°N, 12.93°EMotol — 50.00°N, 14.22°EPridoli — 50.02°N, 14.38°EJerrestad Shale — 57.78°N, 14.18°EElton Beds — 52.17°N, 3.42°WSyracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WDictyonema Shale — 55.58°N, 14.13°ECeratopyge — 55.58°N, 14.13°EObispo — 21.00°S, 65.00°WLower Kock Beds — 51.63°N, 22.45°ELochkow — 49.90°N, 14.02°EFluminimaggiore — 39.50°N, 8.50°EUpper Longhope Beds — 52.00°N, 2.00°WRacine Dolomite — 42.00°N, 88.00°WKosov — 50.08°N, 14.62°EOil Creek — 36.07°N, 98.21°WCunningham Creek — 45.38°N, 66.32°WVernon Shale — 43.08°N, 77.52°WPorto de Santa Anna — 40.38°N, 8.37°WOld Red Sandstone — 51.50°N, 2.78°WLochkov — 50.00°N, 14.35°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ceratiocaris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceratiocaris and its relatives

Silurian

Where Ceratiocaris and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

586 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 47 sites for Ceratiocaris, 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

31 references

Each of the 53 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. 19 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 Ceratiocaris

Credit
Kennethcgass
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ceratiocaris 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 itCeratiocarididae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. M'Coy 1849