Macroscaphites

Macroscaphites is an extinct cephalopod genus included in the Ammonoidea that lived during the Barremian and Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils have been found throughout most of Europe and North Africa.

Macroscaphites

Hectonichus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
MacroscaphitidaePBDB
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 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 41 of 42 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 42 occurrencesLate Cretaceous126–125 Mya — about 2 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 6 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 6 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 6 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 8 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 10 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 2 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.4 Mya100.5 Mya126.4 Mya93.3 Mya

42 occurrences of Macroscaphites 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

42 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

8 formations

Les Graous — 43.84°N, 7.08°EDonji Milanovac — 44.53°N, 22.04°EMaiolica — 43.59°N, 12.54°EMaiolica — 45.75°N, 9.48°ELuckovska — 49.03°N, 18.33°EGarcía — 10.02°N, 63.52°WForcall — 40.55°N, 0.18°EMakatini — 27.17°S, 32.17°ELa Peña — 25.43°N, 100.12°W

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The named rock units Macroscaphites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macroscaphites and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

152 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 37 sites for Macroscaphites, 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

18 references

Each of the 42 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. 6 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 Macroscaphites

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itMacroscaphitidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meek 1876