Hoplites

Hoplites is a genus of ammonite that lived from the Early Albian to the beginning of the Middle Albian. Its fossils have been found in Europe, Transcaspia and Mexico. Shell has compressed, rectangular till depressed and trapezoidal whorl section. There are strong umbilical bullae from which, prominent ribs are branching and these are interrupted on venter. Ends of ribs on the venter are prominent and can be both alternate or opposite. Some species have zigzagging ribs and these ribs ends usually thickened, or they can be raised into ventrolateral tubercles. These tubercles are mostly oblique clavi.

Hoplites

Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · 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
HoplitinaePBDB
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 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 89.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 83.6 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 72 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 70 of 72 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 72 occurrencesLate Cretaceous151–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences144–141 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 1 occurrence137–135 Mya — about 5 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 5 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 5 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 11 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 20 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 10 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 3 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137.05 Mya89.8 Mya151 Mya82 Mya

72 occurrences of Hoplites on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

72 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

15 formations

Grès verts helvétiques — 45.99°N, 6.71°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.10°N, 6.82°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.02°N, 6.75°EGrès verts helvétiques — 45.99°N, 6.58°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.05°N, 6.52°ECarolinefjellet — 77.63°N, 15.26°ECarolinefjellet — 77.44°N, 15.73°ECarolinefjellet — 77.47°N, 15.71°ECarolinefjellet — 77.40°N, 15.84°ECarolinefjellet — 77.36°N, 17.53°ECarolinefjellet — 77.67°N, 17.39°ECarolinefjellet — 77.87°N, 16.89°EFolkestone — 51.27°N, 0.08°EFolkestone — 51.22°N, 0.82°WFolkestone — 51.07°N, 1.18°EPunta del Cobre — 27.57°S, 70.29°WPunta del Cobre — 27.55°S, 70.30°WQuintuco — 38.12°S, 70.35°WMogilno — 51.98°N, 19.02°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.28°N, 7.20°EConglomérats de Bargy — 45.86°N, 6.45°EZapata — 51.14°S, 73.28°WGarschella — 47.33°N, 9.54°EMungo River — 4.53°N, 9.51°EHelvetiafjellet — 78.10°N, 13.89°ERurikfjellet — 78.10°N, 13.95°EPikhtarskaya — 44.37°N, 39.32°EGault — 51.35°N, 1.99°W

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The named rock units Hoplites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hoplites and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Hoplites and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

282 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 58 sites for Hoplites, 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

26 references

Each of the 72 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. 14 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 content3

Picture of Hoplites

Credit
Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Charybdis hoplites · NHMUK:zoo:2025.2075

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHoplitinae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.