Aulacosphinctes

Aulacosphinctes is an extinct genus of ammonoid cephalopod that lived during the Late Jurassic and had a widespread distribution.

Aulacosphinctes

via iDigBio · CC BY · via iDigBio. 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
HimalayitidaePBDB
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 4.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 145.06 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 137.05 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 34 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 31 of 34 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 34 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences159–159 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 1 occurrence151–150 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–149 Mya — about 1 occurrence149–148 Mya — about 2 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 3 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 3 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 5 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 5 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 2 occurrences142–142 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–138 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149.2 Mya145.06 Mya162 Mya136.6 Mya

34 occurrences of Aulacosphinctes on record, most of them in the Late 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

34 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

10 formations

Shuomo — 28.08°N, 86.00°EBanos del Flaco — 35.01°S, 70.43°WHajar — 14.33°N, 48.38°EBhuj — 23.63°N, 68.95°EBhuj — 23.71°N, 68.96°ESpiti Shale — 32.28°N, 78.02°ESpiti Shale — 32.32°N, 77.95°EVaca Muerta — 38.87°S, 70.20°WLo Valdés — 33.75°S, 70.03°WLo Valdés — 34.27°S, 69.93°WBugarone — 43.75°N, 13.02°EPunta Moreno — 7.62°S, 78.88°WBaños del Flaco — 35.00°S, 70.42°W

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The named rock units Aulacosphinctes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aulacosphinctes and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Aulacosphinctes and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

163 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Aulacosphinctes, 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

16 references

Each of the 34 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. 4 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 Aulacosphinctes

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC BY
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aulacosphinctes 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 itHimalayitidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.