Cheiloceratidae
Cheiloceratidae is a family of ammonoid cephalopods included in the goniatitid suborder Tornoceratina in which the suture has 4 to 12 lobes, the ventral one undivided and those in the lateral areas originating as subdivisions of internal and external lateral saddles.

Not Cheiloceratidae. This is Cheiloceras ovatum (Munster, 1832), a relative — both are Cheiloceratidae.
Peterson, M. S. · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- PrionoceratoideaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Ammonoidea
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Goniatitida
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Ammonoidea
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Time the record covers
At most 14 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 372.15 Mya and 358.86 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
160 occurrences of Cheiloceratidae on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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
160 occurrences- Devonian100%
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
7 formations
- Nehden Formation83
- Virgin Hills Formation35
- Knoppenbiessen Formation13
- Gowanda Formation · Canadaway Group10
- Shangdamingshan Formation1
- Coumiac Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Cheiloceratidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Cheiloceratidae and its relatives
DevonianWhere Cheiloceratidae and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.
Found in the same rock
152 taxa- Cheiloceras (Cheiloceras) subpartitum27 sites
- Cheiloceras (Cheiloceras) amblylobum23 sites
- Cheiloceras (Compactoceras)15 sites
- Puncticeras ovatus10 sites
- Tornoceras simplex10 sites
- Lobobactrites9 sites
- Cheiloceras (Cheiloceras) sacculus8 sites
- Paratorleyoceras globosum7 sites
- Paratornoceras lentiforme7 sites
- Sporadoceras (Sporadoceras) biferum7 sites
- Staffites curvispinus7 sites
- Torleyoceras7 sites
- Cheiloceras sacculum6 sites
- Cheiloceras (Cheiloceras)5 sites
- Dimeroceras petterae5 sites
- Epitornoceras peracutum5 sites
- Linguatornoceras haugi5 sites
- Palmatolepis5 sites
- Puncticeras pompeckji5 sites
- Sporadoceras (Sporadoceras) latilobatum5 sites
- Cheiloceras4 sites
- Nehdenites verneuilii4 sites
- Palmatolepis glabra glabra4 sites
- Palmatolepis glabra prima4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Cheiloceratidae, 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
11 references- The “Nehden Goniatite Shale” (lower Famennian, Brilon Reef Complex, NE Rhenish Massif)83
- Upper Devonian (Famennian) ammonoids from the Canning Basin, Western Australia33
- Die Fauna aus dem mittleren Oberdevon (Nehden-Stufe) des suedwestlichen Bergischen Landes (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge); The lower Famennian fauna (Nehden-substage) of the southwestern region of the Bergisches Land (Rhenish Schiefergebirge)13
- Late Devonian goniatites (Cephalopoda, Ammonoidea) from New York State11
- Upper Devonian goniatites and co-occurring conodonts from the Holy Cross Mountains: studies of the Polish Geological Institute collections8
- Devonskie ammonoidei I. Agoniatitidy6
- Discovery of Famennian trilobites in Australia (Late Devonian, Canning Basin, NW Australia)2
- Angustidontus, a Late Devonian pelagic predatory crustacean1
- Famennian ammonoid zones of the eastern Anti-Atlas (southern Morocco)1
- Definition of the Frasnian/Famennian Stage boundary1
- Some Late Devonian trilobites of China1
Each of the 160 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. 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 Cheiloceras ovatum (Munster, 1832)
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Peterson, M. S.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Cheiloceratidae 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
- 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 itPrionoceratoidea through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Frech 1897