Olcostephanus

Olcostephanus is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod genus belonging to the family Olcostephanidae. These fast-moving nektonic carnivores lived during the Cretaceous, from the upper Valanginian to the lower Hauterivian age.

Olcostephanus

Uncredited · 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
OlcostephaninaePBDB
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 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 132.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 121.4 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 656 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 656 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 655 of 656 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous162–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 4 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 4 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 4 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 4 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 119 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 142 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 142 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 76 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 37 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 37 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 37 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 37 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 11 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143.1 Mya132.6 Mya162.3 Mya120.6 Mya

656 occurrences of Olcostephanus 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

656 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

35 formations

Agrio — 38.98°S, 68.00°WAgrio — 39.45°S, 67.70°WAgrio — 37.77°S, 70.40°WAgrio — 37.90°S, 69.87°WAgrio — 37.73°S, 70.22°WAgrio — 37.80°S, 70.17°WAgrio — 37.87°S, 70.03°WAgrio — 38.30°S, 70.10°WAgrio — 38.15°S, 70.10°WAgrio — 34.50°S, 69.67°WAgrio — 37.43°S, 70.45°WAgrio — 37.52°S, 70.00°WAgrio — 37.93°S, 70.12°WAgrio — 38.05°S, 70.03°WAgrio — 38.35°S, 69.92°WAgrio — 38.38°S, 70.03°WAgrio — 38.73°S, 69.90°WAgrio — 39.45°S, 70.32°WAgrio — 37.42°S, 70.33°WAgrio — 37.27°S, 70.48°WMiravetes — 38.09°N, 1.89°WMiravetes — 38.07°N, 1.81°WTaraises — 26.98°N, 102.08°WTaraises — 24.70°N, 103.50°WTaraises — 24.59°N, 101.52°WTaraises — 24.81°N, 101.70°WTaraises — 24.61°N, 101.57°WEl Mergueb — 36.84°N, 9.62°EMaiolica — 43.47°N, 12.72°EMaiolica — 43.53°N, 12.58°EBersek Marl — 47.75°N, 18.50°EPunta del Cobre — 27.57°S, 70.29°WPunta del Cobre — 27.54°S, 70.30°WPunta del Cobre — 28.86°S, 71.09°WMogyorósdomb Limestone — 47.17°N, 17.79°ERossfeld — 47.69°N, 13.66°ERossfeld — 47.79°N, 14.52°EAbundancia — 27.47°S, 70.25°WSidi Lhousseine — 31.21°N, 7.88°WArgiles Brunes — 32.38°N, 9.25°WBiancone — 45.58°N, 11.12°EMyrtle — 43.29°N, 123.18°WGiumal — 32.31°N, 78.03°EBrasov — 45.70°N, 25.45°EGrand Essert — 45.97°N, 5.61°EBodzanow — 51.98°N, 19.02°EMraznica — 49.03°N, 18.33°EKaliste — 49.03°N, 18.33°ELadce — 49.03°N, 18.28°ESundays River — 33.87°S, 25.60°ESundays River — 33.82°S, 25.55°EPieniny Limestone — 48.73°N, 17.47°EGaita — 40.26°N, 0.07°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Olcostephanus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 390 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Olcostephanus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

400 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 484 sites for Olcostephanus, and this reads 240 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

68 references

Each of the 656 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. 56 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 content1

Picture of Olcostephanus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Olcostephanus 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 itOlcostephaninae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Neumayr 1875)