Ceramopora
Ceramopora is an extinct genus of bryozoan of the family Ceramoporidae. It is one of the earliest genera of bryozoans. Its colonies were thin and discoid, with large autozooecia, abundant communication pores, lunaria, and monticules with depressions in their centers. It had no acanthostyles or diaphragms, distinguishing it from Acanthoceramoporella.

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- CeramoporidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Bryozoa
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Stenolaemata
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lophophorata
Time the record covers
At least 102 million years on record.
The record covers at least 468 Mya to 365.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 477.1 Mya to 358.86 Mya.
70 occurrences of Ceramopora on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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
70 occurrences- Ordovician27%
- Silurian70%
- Devonian3%
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
32 formations
- Overton Formation17
- Rochester Formation · Clinton Group8
- Rochester Shale Formation · Clinton Group5
- Franopol' Formation2
- Osgood Shale Formation2
- Williamson Shale Formation · Clinton Group2
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The named rock units Ceramopora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ceramopora and its relatives
SilurianWhere Ceramopora and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.
Found in the same rock
877 taxa- Leioclema23 sites
- Craniops22 sites
- Beyrichia18 sites
- Dalmanites17 sites
- Fuchsella amygdalina17 sites
- Protochonetes ludloviensis17 sites
- Salopina lunata17 sites
- Atrypa reticularis16 sites
- Orthoceras16 sites
- Pterinea15 sites
- Serpulites15 sites
- Favosites14 sites
- Mesotrypa14 sites
- Microsphaeridiorhynchia nucula14 sites
- Atrypa13 sites
- Crinoidea13 sites
- Dalmanella13 sites
- Enterolasma13 sites
- Eoplectodonta (Eoplectodonta) transversalis13 sites
- Leptaena rhomboidalis13 sites
- Michelinoceras13 sites
- Eospirifer radiatus12 sites
- Hyolithes12 sites
- Loxonema obsoleta12 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 60 sites for Ceramopora, 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- Faunas from the Upper Silurian (Upper Ludlovian) in the Ludlow-Much Wenlock District, England17
- The Clinton of Western and Central New York10
- Wenlockian fossil communities in New York State and adjacent areas: Paleontology and Paleoecology4
- Silurian and Lower Devonian brachiopod and bryozoan communities of southwestern Byelorussia4
- The early Paleozoic Bryozoa of the Baltic Provinces3
- Upper Ordovician bryozoa from the Montagne de Noire, Southern France2
- Bathymetry and paleoecology of Silurian benthic assemblages, late Llandoverian, New York State2
- Stromatoporaty i biostratigrafiya nizhnego paleozoya Mongolii [Stromatoporata and biostratigraphy of the Lower Paleozoic of Mongolia]2
- Silurian Reefs of Gotland2
- Osgood (Niagaran) bryozoans from the type area2
- Silurian stratigraphy and palæontology of the Niagara escarpment in Ontario2
- A Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) reefal bryozoan fauna from Anticosti Island, eastern Canada: taxonomy and chemostratigraphy1
Each of the 70 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 content1

Picture of Ceramopora
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Ceramopora was found in Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Ceramopora”
- 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 itCeramoporidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hall 1851