Cooperoceras

Cooperoceras is an extinct genus of nautilid cephalopods within the family Tainoceratidae. Its most characteristic trait is the presence of long paired hollow spines on its outer sides, which is one of the most extreme forms of shell ornamentation in nautiloids. It lived from the Upper Carboniferous to the Lower Permian and its fossils have been found in North America and Europe.

Cooperoceras

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
MetacoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nautilida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Nautilida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Nautilida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 24 million years on record.

The record covers at least 298.9 Mya to 274.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 303.7 Mya to 266.9 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 4 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 3 of 4 occurrencesPermian304–303 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences301–299 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences283–281 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences279–278 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences278–276 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences273–271 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences298.9 Mya274.4 Mya304.4 Mya266.2 Mya

4 occurrences of Cooperoceras on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

4 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

3 formations

Bone Spring — 31.50°N, 104.92°WMattoon — 39.18°N, 88.60°WWord — 30.40°N, 103.18°W

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The named rock units Cooperoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cooperoceras and its relatives

Permian

Where Cooperoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

206 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Cooperoceras, 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

3 references

Each of the 4 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 Cooperoceras

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

No 3D scan of Cooperoceras 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 itMetacoceratidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1945