Murrayoceras

Murrayoceras is a nautilid cephalopod included in the orthocerid family Baltoceratidae, widespread in the Middle Ordovician of North America, characterized by a depressed orthoconic shell with a subtriangular cross section and flattened venter and a proportionally large ventral siphuncle, 0.15 to 0.3 the dorso-ventral shell diameter. Septa are close spaced with sutures forming broad lobes on the upper flanks and ventral surface.

No picture of Murrayoceras 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 Murrayoceras, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
SactorthoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Orthocerida
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Orthocerida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Orthocerida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Orthocerida

Time the record covers

At most 22 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 471.3 Mya and 449.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Ordovician — about 3 of 3 occurrencesOrdovician472–471 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences471–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–470 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences467–467 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–451 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences471.8 Mya449.1 Mya

3 occurrences of Murrayoceras on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

3 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

3 formations

Tyrone Limestone — 37.83°N, 84.55°WLowville — 45.37°N, 75.72°WDay Point — 44.62°N, 73.35°W

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The named rock units Murrayoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Murrayoceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Murrayoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Murrayoceras, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 Murrayoceras 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 Murrayoceras, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Murrayoceras 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 itSactorthoceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Foerste 1926