Maximites

Maximites is a genus of Late Carboniferous ammonoids. Adult specimens were the smallest known ammonoids, only at about 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter of shells. Fossils are found in various Late Carboniferous marine strata in North America. Maximites is the sole genus of Maximitidae, one of two families of the Superfamily Pseudohaloritoidea, an important subgroup of the order Goniatitida.

No picture of Maximites was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Maximites, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MaximitidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ammonoidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Goniatitida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Ammonoidea
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 315.2 Mya and 303.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 10 of 10 occurrencesCarboniferous315–315 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences315–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences306–306 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences306–305 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences305–305 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences305–304 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences304–304 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences315.7 Mya303.2 Mya

10 occurrences of Maximites on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

10 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

6 formations

Wewoka — 34.75°N, 96.58°WWewoka — 35.02°N, 96.38°WWewoka — 35.72°N, 96.00°WFour Corners — 37.70°N, 82.79°WFour Corners — 37.59°N, 82.77°WAltamont — 36.12°N, 95.85°WHare Fiord — 81.13°N, 84.33°WCoffeyville — 36.34°N, 95.83°WCherokee — 38.47°N, 93.96°W

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The named rock units Maximites 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.

Maximites and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Maximites and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

121 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Maximites, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 content0

No picture of Maximites was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Maximites, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Maximites 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 itMaximitidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller and Furnish 1957