Endocerida

Endocerida, from Ancient Greek ἔνδον (éndon), meaning "inside", and κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn", is an extinct nautiloid order, a group of cephalopods from the Lower Paleozoic with cone-like deposits in their siphuncle. Endocerida was a diverse group of cephalopods that lived from the Early Ordovician possibly to the Late Silurian. Their shells were variable in form. Some were straight (orthoconic), others curved (cyrtoconic); some were long (longiconic), others short (breviconic). Some long-shelled forms like Endoceras attained shell lengths close to 6 metres (20 ft). The related Cameroceras is anecdotally reported to have reached lengths approaching 9 metres (30 ft), but these claims are problematic. The overwhelming majority of endocerids and nautiloids in general are much smaller, usually less than a meter long when fully grown.

Endocerida

Entelognathus · CC BY-SA 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
EndoceratoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 486.85 Mya to 358.86 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 491 Mya to 346.7 Mya.

Cambrian — about 1 of 726 occurrencesOrdovician — about 723 of 726 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 726 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 726 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 1 of 726 occurrencesCarboniferous494–489 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences489–484 Mya — about 13 occurrences484–479 Mya — about 61 occurrences479–474 Mya — about 94 occurrences474–469 Mya — about 115 occurrences469–464 Mya — about 74 occurrences464–459 Mya — about 97 occurrences459–454 Mya — about 81 occurrences454–449 Mya — about 139 occurrences449–444 Mya — about 47 occurrences444–439 Mya — about 2 occurrences439–434 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences434–429 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences429–424 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences424–419 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences364–359 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences359–354 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences354–349 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences349–344 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences486.85 Mya358.86 Mya494 Mya344 Mya

726 occurrences of Endocerida 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

726 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

199 formations

Dawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 27.00°N, 108.00°EDawan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 108.00°EDawan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EDawan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 118.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 119.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 39.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 39.00°N, 115.00°ELianjiashan — 41.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 119.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 114.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 112.00°EGuniutan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 32.00°N, 108.00°EGuniutan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EGuniutan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 30.00°N, 117.00°EGuniutan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EBen Suardal Limestone — 57.22°N, 4.78°WBen Suardal Limestone — 57.23°N, 5.91°WBen Suardal Limestone — 57.21°N, 6.02°WRockdale Run — 39.63°N, 77.82°WRochdale — 41.44°N, 74.36°WRochdale — 43.47°N, 73.41°WRochdale — 43.36°N, 73.47°WRochdale — 43.40°N, 73.45°WRochdale — 41.72°N, 73.85°WCroisaphuill — 58.51°N, 4.80°WCroisaphuill — 58.62°N, 4.87°WCroisaphuill — 58.56°N, 4.78°WHonghuayuan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 107.00°EHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 105.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EHonghuayuan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EJigunsan — 37.19°N, 128.74°EJigunsan — 37.16°N, 128.88°EJigunsan — 37.15°N, 128.94°EAmadjuak — 63.72°N, 68.97°WAmadjuak — 65.25°N, 73.17°WAmadjuak — 66.00°N, 69.83°WAmadjuak — 68.80°N, 81.24°WDenley Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WDenley Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.28°N, 75.14°WDubuque — 45.00°N, 93.00°WDubuque — 43.00°N, 91.00°WMaquoketa — 45.00°N, 93.00°WMaquoketa — 43.00°N, 92.00°WShan Majiagou — 39.67°N, 118.26°EShan Majiagou — 39.00°N, 118.00°EShan Majiagou — 39.00°N, 115.00°EShan Majiagou — 36.00°N, 114.00°EShan Majiagou — 41.00°N, 123.00°EFort Cassin — 44.21°N, 73.25°WFort Cassin — 44.60°N, 73.44°WFort Cassin — 44.80°N, 73.50°WFort Cassin — 44.01°N, 73.60°WFort Cassin — 43.78°N, 73.64°WValcour — 44.88°N, 73.34°WValcour — 44.62°N, 73.42°WNanjinguan — 33.00°N, 111.00°ENanjinguan — 29.00°N, 109.00°ENanjinguan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 29.00°N, 109.00°EBaota — 28.00°N, 109.00°EBaota — 29.00°N, 110.00°EBaota — 30.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 27.00°N, 101.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 118.00°EBaota — 31.00°N, 117.00°EDunleith — 43.00°N, 91.00°WLourdes — 48.73°N, 58.82°WLourdes — 48.72°N, 58.90°WLourdes — 48.77°N, 58.80°WBønsnes — 66.77°N, 13.47°EBønsnes — 60.08°N, 10.22°EBønsnes — 60.00°N, 10.88°EBønsnes — 60.14°N, 10.30°EZhitai — 29.00°N, 109.00°EBad Cache Rapids — 69.46°N, 82.86°WBad Cache Rapids — 66.78°N, 83.90°WBad Cache Rapids — 69.23°N, 82.48°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.75°N, 81.63°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.34°N, 82.37°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.38°N, 82.31°WBad Cache Rapids — 69.23°N, 82.25°WDay Point — 44.60°N, 73.44°WDay Point — 44.68°N, 73.32°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Endocerida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 175 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 39 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Endocerida and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Endocerida and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,610 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 486 sites for Endocerida, and this reads 240 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

137 references

Each of the 726 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. 125 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 Endocerida

Credit
Entelognathus
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Endocerida 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 itEndoceratoidea through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt in Zittel 1900