Grammoceras
Grammoceras is an extinct genus of ammonite found in Yorks Ravenscar, England, from Jurassic period sediments. Its overall distribution is fairly worldwide.

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
- GrammoceratinaePBDB
- 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 least 18 million years on record.
The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 174.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 199.5 Mya to 170.9 Mya.
91 occurrences of Grammoceras on record, most of them in the Early 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
91 occurrencesThese 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
12 formations
- Whiteaves Formation · Maude Group12
- Braunjura alpha & Braunjura beta Formation · Braunjura Group8
- Kisgerecse Formation7
- Dogger Formation5
- Jurensismergel Formation4
- Marnes de Fontaneilles Formation3
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The named rock units Grammoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Grammoceras and its relatives
Early JurassicWhere Grammoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
207 taxa- Phymatoceras12 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras latescens11 sites
- Polyplectus discoides7 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras fallaciosum7 sites
- Podagrosites6 sites
- Podagrosites pseudogrunowi6 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras6 sites
- Esericeras fascigerum5 sites
- Calliphylloceras4 sites
- Esericeras eseri4 sites
- Geczyceras bonarellii4 sites
- Gresslya4 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras differens4 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras muelleri4 sites
- Bositra buchi3 sites
- Dactyloteuthis3 sites
- Denckmannia crassicosta3 sites
- Mouterdeiceras dubourgi3 sites
- Oxyparoniceras (Neoparoniceras) undulosum3 sites
- Pholadomya3 sites
- Pleuromya3 sites
- Pleurotomaria3 sites
- Pseudogrammoceras struckmanni3 sites
- Pseudolioceras maclintocki3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 69 sites for Grammoceras, 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
22 references- Évolution et systématique des Phymatoceratinae et des Grammoceratinae (Hildocerataceae Ammonitina) de la région de Thouars, stratotype du Toarcien14
- Toarcian (Early Jurassic) ammonoids from western North America12
- Les Harpoceratinae, Hildoceratinae et Parinoceratinae du Toarcien de la Vendée et des Deux-Sèvres (France)9
- Toarcian-Aalenian Hammatoceratinae (Ammonitina) from the Gerecse Mts (NE Transdanubian Range, Hungary)8
- Die Gundershoffener Klamm8
- Das Makrobenthos der Causses (Südfrankreich): Palökologie einer mittel- bis oberliassischen Mergelfolge7
- Notes on Dogger horizons in north-east Yorkshire5
- Biozonación del Toarciense en el área de La Almunia de Doña Godina-Ricla (Sector Central de la Cordillera Ibérica)4
- Belemnites from the Upper Pliensbachian and the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Tournadous (Causses, France)3
- La Couche à Crassum (Toarcien moyen) au Luxembourg: stratigraphie et faunes de la coupe de Dudelange-Zoufftgen3
- Biostratigraphy of the Lower and Middle Jurassic deposits of the Far East3
- Geología de las áreas Río Chollay-Matancilla y Cajón del Encierro2
Each of the 91 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. 10 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 content2

Picture of Grammoceras
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Andrew R Cuff
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Grammoceras”
- 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 itGrammoceratinae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.