Chondroceras
Chondroceras is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil cephalopods, the ammonites. It lived during the Jurassic Period,.

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- SphaeroceratidaePBDB
- 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 most 5.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 170.9 Mya and 165.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
14 occurrences of Chondroceras on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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
14 occurrences- Middle Jurassic100%
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
7 formations
- Sawtooth Formation2
- Caleta Lígate Formation2
- "Berching" Formation1
- Guemgouma Formation1
- Lautaro Formation1
- Asientos Formation1
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The named rock units Chondroceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Chondroceras and its relatives
Middle JurassicWhere Chondroceras and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
40 taxa- Dorsetensia3 sites
- Stephanoceras3 sites
- Teloceras3 sites
- Camptonectes2 sites
- Lingula2 sites
- Lucina2 sites
- Macrocephalitidae2 sites
- Pinna2 sites
- Pleuromya2 sites
- Sonninia2 sites
- Spiroceras2 sites
- Stephanoceras (Skirroceras)2 sites
- Anatina (Cercomya) punctata1 site
- Astarte meeki1 site
- Belemnites1 site
- Burmirhynchia termierae1 site
- Cadomites1 site
- Cucullaea (Idonearca)1 site
- Dorsetensia liostraca1 site
- Dorsetensia romani1 site
- Emileia1 site
- Garantiana (Garantiana)1 site
- Garantiana (Pseudogarantiana) dichotoma1 site
- Gervillaria montanaensis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Chondroceras, 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
11 references- Cartas Iquique y Pozo Almonte, Región de Tarapacá. Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Carta Geológica de Chile, Serie Geológica Básica Nos. 162-163, 1 mapa escala 1:100.000. Santiago2
- Carta Exploradora, Regiones de Antofagasta y Atacama. Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Carta Geológica de Chile, Serie Geología Básica 19: 103 p, 1 mapa escala 1:100.0002
- Mihalynuk et al., 19992
- Les brachiopodes du Jurassique inférieur et moyen en Tunisie centrale (Axe Nord-Sud). Un nouveau témoin du domaine paléobiogéographique ouest-téthysien1
- The Jurassic succession at Lisadele Lake (Tulsequah map area, British Columbia, Canada) and its bearing on the tectonic evolution of the Stikine terrane1
- Moscoso, R.; Mpodozis, C.; Nasi, C.; Ribba, L.; Arévalo, C. (compilador) 2010. Geología de la Hoja El Tránsito, Región de Atacama. Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Carta Geológica de Chile, Serie Preliminar 7: 3 anexos, 1 mapa escala 1:250.000. Santiago1
- Zur Stratigraphie des Mittel- und unteren Oberjuras in Sengenthal bei Neumarkt /Opf. (Fränkische Alb) [On the stratigraphy of the Middle and early Upper Jurassic at Sengenthal, near Neumarkt/Opf. (Franconian Alb)]1
- Twin Creek Limestone (Jurassic) in the Western Interior of the United States1
- Zur Stratigraphie des Doggers in der kalkalpinen Randzone des Kampenwand-Vorlandes1
- Jurassic (Bathonian or Early Callovian) Ammonites from Alaska and Montana1
- Interpretations of the Marine Jurassic Fossil Record at Lower Slide Lake, Teton County, Wyoming1
Each of the 14 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 Chondroceras
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
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 itSphaeroceratidae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.