Ptychoceratodus

Ptychoceratodus is an extinct genus of lungfish living from Early Triassic to Middle Jurassic. It was established by Otto Jaekel for one species, transferred from Ceratodus genus. Type species is P. serratus from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and Germany. Ptychoceratodus had two pairs of massive dental plates, bearing 4-6 acute ridges. Its skull roof was composed from massive, plate-like bones. In the central part of skull roof was localized an unossified fenestra. Most of the Ptychoceratodus findings are isolated dental plates, some associated with jaws. Other parts of skull or postcranial skeleton are relatively rarely found as fossils. The anatomy of skull is the best recognized in P. serratus, whereas less complete cranial material is available also for P. concinuus, P. phillipsi, and P. rectangulus. Although Ptychoceratodus is known exclusively from the Triassic and Jurassic, there were also Cretaceous specimens referred to this genus. However, they are more often regarded as representants of Metaceratodus. Ptychoceratodus is the only member of the family Ptychoceratodontidae. The first named species is P. phillipsi by Louis Agassiz in 1837 as a species of Ceratodus and later moved to the genus Ptychoceratodus. Occurrences of Ptychoceratodus come mainly from Europe. However, occurrences from other continents suggest it was dispersed globally during the Triassic. After 2010, the new fossil material behind the Europe was reported from South America, India, and Greenland

Ptychoceratodus

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
PtychoceratodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
lagoonal,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Dipnoi

Time the record covers

At least 174 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 250.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 17 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 2 of 17 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 17 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 8 of 17 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 17 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 17 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 2 of 17 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 17 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 17 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences254–248 Mya — about 1 occurrence248–242 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences242–235 Mya — about 1 occurrence235–229 Mya — about 2 occurrences229–222 Mya — about 1 occurrence222–216 Mya — about 1 occurrence216–210 Mya — about 1 occurrence210–203 Mya — about 1 occurrence203–197 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences178–171 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences171–165 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165–158 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences152–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–139 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences114–107 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences107–101 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences101–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–62 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences247 Mya72.2 Mya254 Mya62 Mya

17 occurrences of Ptychoceratodus on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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

17 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

14 formations

Grès à Avicula contorta — 48.62°N, 6.33°EHuai Hin Lat — 16.53°N, 101.63°EErfurt — 49.21°N, 9.68°EBurgersdorp — 28.18°S, 27.96°EMarnes de Châlins — 46.91°N, 5.67°ELöwenstein — 49.03°N, 8.97°EWeser — 48.77°N, 9.20°ELipovskaya — 49.26°N, 43.67°ELefipán — 43.14°S, 69.20°WPotrerillos — 33.08°S, 69.13°WGrabowa — 50.67°N, 18.28°EElrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°ELos Alamitos — 41.95°S, 66.33°WGarita Creek — 35.28°N, 104.55°W

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The named rock units Ptychoceratodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ptychoceratodus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Ptychoceratodus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

226 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Ptychoceratodus, 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

17 references

Each of the 17 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. 5 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 Ptychoceratodus

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 Ptychoceratodus 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 itPtychoceratodontidae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

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