Cymatoceras elegans

Cymatoceras elegans is an extinct species of nautilitacean cephalopods in the family Cymatoceratidae. It is from the Cretaceous of Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Cymatoceras elegans

Mantell, Gideon Algernon, 1790-1852 · Public Domain · 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
CymatocerasPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nautilidae
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Nautilidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Nautilidae
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At most 24 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 113.2 Mya and 89.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 5 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous114–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113.7 Mya89.3 Mya

5 occurrences of Cymatoceras elegans on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

5 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

3 formations

West Melbury Marly Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.18°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 50.59°N, 1.24°WNeuburger Weiß — 48.73°N, 11.18°EUpper Greensand — 50.59°N, 1.24°W

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The named rock units Cymatoceras elegans has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cymatoceras elegans and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Cymatoceras elegans and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

73 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Cymatoceras elegans, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 Cymatoceras elegans

Credit
Mantell, Gideon Algernon, 1790-1852
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCymatoceras through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sowerby 1816)