Asteroceras

Asteroceras is an extinct genus of cephalopod belonging to the Ammonite subclass. These fast-moving nektonic carnivores lived during the Triassic and Jurassic periods.

Asteroceras

Dlloyd · 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
AsteroceratidaePBDB
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 most 27 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 174.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 91 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 91 of 91 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 91 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 5 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 12 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 12 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 12 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 12 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 12 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 12 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 9 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences190–189 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences189–188 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences184–183 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201.9 Mya174.2 Mya

91 occurrences of Asteroceras on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

91 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

18 formations

Isztimér Limestone — 47.20°N, 17.90°EIsztimér Limestone — 46.98°N, 17.30°ELower Lias — 51.80°N, 1.88°WTelkwa — 54.77°N, 127.17°WTelkwa — 54.84°N, 127.84°WAllgäu — 47.72°N, 13.73°EAllgäu — 47.18°N, 9.98°EAllgäu — 47.10°N, 9.78°EInklin — 59.28°N, 133.82°WInklin — 59.42°N, 134.00°WSunrise — 38.66°N, 118.19°WAdnet — 47.14°N, 9.84°EAdnet — 47.17°N, 10.01°EIsztimér — 47.18°N, 17.83°EAllgäu — 47.79°N, 12.58°EAntimonio — 30.63°N, 112.57°WCalcaires à Gryphées — 47.06°N, 4.74°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.91°WAin Ouarka — 32.71°N, 0.16°WJinji — 22.16°N, 112.50°EArvison — 41.25°N, 122.33°WFernie — 51.25°N, 115.33°WTolo Channel — 22.45°N, 114.28°ECoimbra — 39.76°N, 9.03°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Asteroceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 40 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Asteroceras and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Asteroceras and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

246 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 48 sites for Asteroceras, 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

31 references

Each of the 91 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. 19 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 Asteroceras

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itAsteroceratidae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt 1867