Hildoceras bifrons
Hildoceras bifrons is an extinct species of ammonite in the family Hildoceratidae. It dates from about 175 million years ago in the Early Jurassic when it was both widespread and common. Fossils have been found in North Africa and Europe, including several regions of England.

Hildoceras_bifrons_Bruguière.jpg : Notafly derivative work: Cwmhiraeth · 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
- HildocerasPBDB
- 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 most 9.5 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 184.2 Mya and 174.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
127 occurrences of Hildoceras bifrons on record, most of them in the Early 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
127 occurrences- Early Jurassic100%
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
12 formations
- Alum Shale Formation27
- Bugarone Formation9
- Marnes de Fontaneilles Formation5
- Castillo Pedros Formation5
- Subbetic Basin Formation5
- Kisgerecse Formation3
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The named rock units Hildoceras bifrons has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 63 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Hildoceras bifrons and its relatives
Early JurassicWhere Hildoceras bifrons and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
155 taxa- Hildoceras semipolitum17 sites
- Phymatoceras15 sites
- Hildoceras apertum11 sites
- Phymatoceras robustum10 sites
- Harpoceras subplanatum9 sites
- Calliphylloceras8 sites
- Calliphylloceras nilssoni8 sites
- Catacoeloceras crassum8 sites
- Phylloceras heterophyllum8 sites
- Porpoceras8 sites
- Pseudolioceras lythense8 sites
- Harpoceras7 sites
- Phylloceras doderleinianum7 sites
- Phymatoceras narbonense7 sites
- Calliphylloceras aveyronnense6 sites
- Lytoceras6 sites
- Lytoceras cornucopia6 sites
- Collina nicklesi5 sites
- Maconiceras5 sites
- Mercaticeras5 sites
- Nodicoeloceras5 sites
- Peronoceras fibulatum5 sites
- Peronoceras subarmatum5 sites
- Phylloceras5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 112 sites for Hildoceras bifrons, 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
24 references- The Jet Rock Series and the Alum Shale Series of the Yorkshire coast27
- Évolution et systématique des Phymatoceratinae et des Grammoceratinae (Hildocerataceae Ammonitina) de la région de Thouars, stratotype du Toarcien14
- Cingolites n. gen., a new lower Toarcian Hildoceratinae (Ammonitina) from the Marchean Apennines (Cingoli, Macerata, Italy)9
- Caracterización de Choffatirhynchia nov. gen. (Brachiopoda, Rhynchonellida) en el Toarciense (Jurásico) de la Cordillera Ibérica (España)9
- Das Makrobenthos der Causses (Südfrankreich): Palökologie einer mittel- bis oberliassischen Mergelfolge9
- Middle Toarcian Ammonitina from the Gerecse Mts, Hungary7
- Biozonación del Toarciense en el área de La Almunia de Doña Godina-Ricla (Sector Central de la Cordillera Ibérica)7
- Belemnites from the Upper Pliensbachian and the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Tournadous (Causses, France)5
- The Toarcian in the Subbetic basin (southern Spain): Bio-events (ammonite and calcareous nannofossils) and carbon-isotope stratigraphy5
- Warming-driven mass extinction in the Early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) of northern and central Spain. Correlation with other time-equivalent European sections5
- Les Harpoceratinae, Hildoceratinae et Parinoceratinae du Toarcien de la Vendée et des Deux-Sèvres (France)5
- Les Brachiopodes liasiques de la Bordure Sud du Massif Armoricain: Succession des peuplements et environnements ; chronostratigraphie4
Each of the 127 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. 12 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 content2
Picture of Hildoceras bifrons
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Hildoceras_bifrons_Bruguière.jpg : Notafly derivative work: Cwmhiraeth
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
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 itHildoceras through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bruguiere 1792)