Hexameroceras

Hexameroceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Oncocerida that lived during the middle and late Silurian. Its fossils have been found in North America in Indiana, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and in Europe in the Czech Republic.

Hexameroceras

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
HemiphragmoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Oncocerida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Oncocerida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 426.7 Mya to 422.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 419.62 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 12 occurrencesSilurian — about 12 of 12 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 12 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences443–442 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences442–441 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences441–440 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–440 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–439 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences439–438 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences438–437 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences437–436 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences436–435 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences435–435 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences435–434 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences434–433 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences433–432 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences432–431 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences431–431 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences431–430 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences430–429 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences429–428 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences428–427 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences427–426 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences426–426 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences426–425 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences425–424 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences424–423 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences423–422 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences422–422 Mya — about 1 occurrence422–421 Mya — about 1 occurrence421–420 Mya — about 1 occurrence420–419 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences426.7 Mya422.7 Mya443.6 Mya419.1 Mya

12 occurrences of Hexameroceras on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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

12 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

9 formations

Syracuse — 43.05°N, 76.15°WSyracuse — 43.07°N, 76.33°WLouisville — 40.58°N, 86.67°WLouisville Limestone — 40.55°N, 84.57°WRaisin River — 42.33°N, 83.05°WRacine — 43.05°N, 88.01°WPozary — 50.08°N, 14.47°EVernon — 43.04°N, 75.59°WPridoli — 50.02°N, 14.38°EKopanina — 49.93°N, 14.05°E

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The named rock units Hexameroceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hexameroceras and its relatives

Silurian

Where Hexameroceras and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

276 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Hexameroceras, 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

9 references

Each of the 12 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 Hexameroceras

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hexameroceras was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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

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 itHemiphragmoceratidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

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