Endoceratidae

Endoceratidae, from Ancient Greek ἔνδον (éndon), meaning "inside", and κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn", is a family of large to very large straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Endocerida that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. They include the largest known Paleozoic invertebrates, represented by Endoceras and Cameroceras.

Endoceratidae

Ghedoghedo · 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
EndoceridaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Endocerida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Endocerida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Endocerida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 122 million years on record.

The record covers at least 481.7 Mya to 358.86 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 488.9 Mya to 346.7 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 550 occurrencesOrdovician — about 548 of 550 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 550 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 0 of 550 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 1 of 550 occurrencesCarboniferous492–487 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences487–482 Mya — about 8 occurrences482–477 Mya — about 13 occurrences477–472 Mya — about 59 occurrences472–467 Mya — about 76 occurrences467–462 Mya — about 61 occurrences462–457 Mya — about 86 occurrences457–452 Mya — about 91 occurrences452–447 Mya — about 123 occurrences447–442 Mya — about 31 occurrences442–438 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences438–433 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences433–428 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences428–423 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences423–418 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences364–359 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences359–354 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences354–349 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences349–344 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences481.7 Mya358.86 Mya492 Mya344 Mya

550 occurrences of Endoceratidae on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

550 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

172 formations

Dawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 27.00°N, 108.00°EDawan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 108.00°EDawan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EDawan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 31.00°N, 118.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EGuniutan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 32.00°N, 108.00°EGuniutan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EGuniutan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EGuniutan — 30.00°N, 117.00°EGuniutan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EJigunsan — 37.19°N, 128.74°EJigunsan — 37.16°N, 128.88°EJigunsan — 37.15°N, 128.94°EAmadjuak — 63.72°N, 68.97°WAmadjuak — 65.25°N, 73.17°WAmadjuak — 66.00°N, 69.83°WAmadjuak — 68.80°N, 81.24°WLianjiashan — 40.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 39.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 39.00°N, 115.00°ELianjiashan — 41.00°N, 118.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 119.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 114.00°ELianjiashan — 40.00°N, 112.00°EDenley Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WDenley Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.28°N, 75.14°WHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 109.00°EHonghuayuan — 28.00°N, 105.00°EHonghuayuan — 29.00°N, 110.00°EHonghuayuan — 30.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 111.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 31.00°N, 118.00°EHonghuayuan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EDubuque — 45.00°N, 93.00°WDubuque — 43.00°N, 91.00°WMaquoketa — 45.00°N, 93.00°WMaquoketa — 43.00°N, 92.00°WShan Majiagou — 39.67°N, 118.26°EShan Majiagou — 39.00°N, 118.00°EShan Majiagou — 39.00°N, 115.00°EShan Majiagou — 36.00°N, 114.00°EShan Majiagou — 41.00°N, 123.00°EValcour — 44.88°N, 73.34°WValcour — 44.62°N, 73.42°WBaota — 29.00°N, 109.00°EBaota — 28.00°N, 109.00°EBaota — 29.00°N, 110.00°EBaota — 30.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 27.00°N, 101.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 118.00°EBaota — 31.00°N, 117.00°EDunleith — 43.00°N, 91.00°WLourdes — 48.73°N, 58.82°WLourdes — 48.72°N, 58.90°WLourdes — 48.77°N, 58.80°WBønsnes — 66.77°N, 13.47°EBønsnes — 60.08°N, 10.22°EBønsnes — 60.00°N, 10.88°EBønsnes — 60.14°N, 10.30°EBad Cache Rapids — 69.46°N, 82.86°WBad Cache Rapids — 66.78°N, 83.90°WBad Cache Rapids — 69.23°N, 82.48°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.75°N, 81.63°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.34°N, 82.37°WBad Cache Rapids — 68.38°N, 82.31°WBad Cache Rapids — 69.23°N, 82.25°WDay Point — 44.60°N, 73.44°WDay Point — 44.68°N, 73.32°WLoobu — 59.40°N, 24.56°ELoobu — 59.44°N, 27.31°ELoobu — 58.86°N, 24.08°ELoobu — 58.74°N, 24.08°EZhitai — 29.00°N, 109.00°EFremont — 38.00°N, 105.00°WFremont — 38.50°N, 105.17°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 44.98°N, 93.26°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 44.92°N, 93.02°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 45.00°N, 93.00°WSt. Peter Sandstone — 43.00°N, 91.00°WGlenwood — 45.00°N, 93.00°WGlenwood — 43.00°N, 91.00°WScales Shale — 43.00°N, 91.00°WFillmore Limestone — 38.92°N, 113.36°WFillmore Limestone — 38.82°N, 113.44°WFillmore Limestone — 38.84°N, 113.46°W

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The named rock units Endoceratidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 148 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Endoceratidae and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Endoceratidae and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

1,567 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 396 sites for Endoceratidae, and this reads 240 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

113 references

Each of the 550 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. 101 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 Endoceratidae

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

No 3D scan of Endoceratidae was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itEndocerida through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt 1884