Dimorphoceratidae

Dimorphoceratidae is one of two families included in the Dimorphoceratoidea, a superfamily of ammonoid cephalopods belonging to the Goniatitida that lived during the Late Paleozoic. They are dimorphocerataceans in which the external lateral lobes and prongs of the ventral lobe are bifid. The shells are strongly involute, subdiscoidal to lenticular.

Asturoceras Ruzhentsev & Bogoslovskaya, 1969, a relative of Dimorphoceratidae — not Dimorphoceratidae itself

Not Dimorphoceratidae. This is Asturoceras Ruzhentsev & Bogoslovskaya, 1969, a relative — both are Dimorphoceratidae.

via GBIF · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
DimorphoceratoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ammonoidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Goniatitida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Ammonoidea
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 339.9 Mya to 315.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 346.7 Mya to 307 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 130 of 130 occurrencesCarboniferous347–346 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences346–345 Mya — about 1 occurrence345–343 Mya — about 1 occurrence343–342 Mya — about 1 occurrence342–341 Mya — about 1 occurrence341–339 Mya — about 3 occurrences339–338 Mya — about 6 occurrences338–336 Mya — about 6 occurrences336–335 Mya — about 5 occurrences335–334 Mya — about 5 occurrences334–332 Mya — about 5 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 5 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 7 occurrences330–328 Mya — about 9 occurrences328–327 Mya — about 9 occurrences327–325 Mya — about 8 occurrences325–324 Mya — about 8 occurrences324–323 Mya — about 6 occurrences323–321 Mya — about 12 occurrences321–320 Mya — about 6 occurrences320–319 Mya — about 20 occurrences319–317 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences317–316 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences316–314 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 1 occurrence313–312 Mya — about 1 occurrence312–310 Mya — about 1 occurrence310–309 Mya — about 1 occurrence309–308 Mya — about 1 occurrence308–306 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences339.9 Mya315.2 Mya347.5 Mya306.2 Mya

130 occurrences of Dimorphoceratidae on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

130 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

28 formations

Chainman — 39.25°N, 115.48°WChainman — 39.60°N, 113.68°WChainman — 39.28°N, 113.63°WChainman — 38.78°N, 113.85°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.07°N, 1.82°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.17°N, 1.87°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.23°N, 2.42°WColsterdale Marine Beds — 54.00°N, 2.00°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.65°N, 2.65°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.58°N, 2.43°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.70°N, 2.30°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.72°N, 2.08°WLower Limestone — 55.76°N, 4.24°WLower Limestone — 55.82°N, 4.37°WLower Limestone — 55.93°N, 4.43°WFayetteville — 35.90°N, 92.62°WFayetteville — 36.12°N, 94.12°WCherokee — 38.51°N, 94.00°WCherokee — 38.50°N, 94.06°WCherokee — 39.04°N, 93.65°WMyslejovice — 49.27°N, 17.00°ERuddell — 35.77°N, 91.69°WRuddell — 35.74°N, 91.57°WRuddell — 35.81°N, 91.54°WCarey — 34.48°N, 97.19°WSabden Shale — 54.00°N, 3.00°WCaton Shales — 54.00°N, 2.83°WRoeburndale — 54.10°N, 2.65°WRoeburndale — 54.03°N, 2.68°WCaney — 34.77°N, 94.01°WBee Low Limestones — 53.35°N, 1.80°WLower Borland Shales — 54.00°N, 2.83°WUpper Borland Shales — 54.00°N, 2.83°WTarnbrook Wyre Marine Beds — 54.00°N, 2.83°WGreta Grit — 54.00°N, 2.83°WBloyd — 36.02°N, 94.21°WHale — 36.06°N, 94.17°WCalciferous Sandstone — 56.04°N, 3.36°WLawmuir — 55.96°N, 4.21°WHamou-Rhanem — 31.07°N, 3.63°WCarraun Shale — 54.42°N, 7.86°W

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The named rock units Dimorphoceratidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 46 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dimorphoceratidae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Dimorphoceratidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

441 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 111 sites for Dimorphoceratidae, 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

24 references

Each of the 130 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. 12 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 Asturoceras Ruzhentsev & Bogoslovskaya, 1969

Source
GBIF
Credit
via GBIF
Licence
CC BY-NC 4.0
Commercial use
the licence does not allow 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 itDimorphoceratoidea through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt 1884