Charactoceras

Charactoceras is a genus of tarphycerid cephalopods which lived during the Late Ordovician.

Charactoceras

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
ApsidoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 450.2 Mya to 449.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Ordovician — about 53 of 53 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 53 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 2 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 2 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 5 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 7 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 9 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 6 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 6 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 6 occurrences445–444 Mya — about 3 occurrences444–444 Mya — about 2 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences450.2 Mya – 449.2 Mya471.9 Mya442.5 Mya

53 occurrences of Charactoceras 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

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

21 formations

Boda Limestone — 61.17°N, 14.71°EBoda Limestone — 61.05°N, 15.20°EBoda Limestone — 61.12°N, 15.17°EWhitewater — 39.00°N, 84.00°WPortage Chute — 58.00°N, 95.00°WPortage Chute — 58.50°N, 95.00°WCaution Creek — 57.97°N, 94.87°WVaureal — 49.00°N, 64.00°WVaureal — 49.75°N, 63.50°WVaureal — 49.67°N, 62.92°WKilley Bridge — 54.60°N, 6.87°WKilley Bridge — 54.60°N, 6.60°WMaquoketa — 45.00°N, 93.00°WMaquoketa — 43.00°N, 92.00°WScales Shale — 43.00°N, 91.00°WAmadjuak — 63.72°N, 68.97°WAmadjuak — 65.25°N, 73.17°WLyckholm — 59.00°N, 25.00°ELyckholm — 59.05°N, 24.03°EBad Cache Rapids — 68.34°N, 82.37°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.36°N, 82.00°WChasm Creek — 58.25°N, 94.57°WCape Calhoun — 80.08°N, 67.00°WRed River — 50.00°N, 100.00°WFremont — 38.50°N, 105.17°WBighorn — 44.00°N, 109.00°WStewartville — 43.50°N, 94.00°WBønsnes — 66.77°N, 13.47°EHusbergøya — 59.87°N, 10.58°EGrimsøya — 59.85°N, 10.52°EIrene Bay — 74.98°N, 95.88°W

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The named rock units Charactoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Charactoceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Charactoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

775 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Charactoceras, 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

12 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. 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 Charactoceras

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Charactoceras 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 itApsidoceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Foerste 1924