Kionoceras

Kionoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod genus included in the orthocerid family Kionoceratidae with scattered worldwide distribution from the Middle Ordovician to the Lower Permian. Kionoceratids are orthocerids with prominent longitudinal ornamentation on their shells, sometimes augmented by secondary transverse ornamentation. Orthocerids are, of course, prehistoric nautiloides with generally straight and elongate shells, mostly with central or subcentral siphuncles.

Kionoceras

Hectonichus · 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
KionoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Orthocerida
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Orthocerida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Orthocerida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Orthocerida

Time the record covers

At least 146 million years on record.

The record covers at least 459.7 Mya to 312.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 306 Mya.

Ordovician — about 59 of 134 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 66 of 134 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 7 of 134 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 2 of 134 occurrencesCarboniferous475–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–463 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences463–457 Mya — about 4 occurrences457–452 Mya — about 24 occurrences452–446 Mya — about 29 occurrences446–440 Mya — about 4 occurrences440–434 Mya — about 15 occurrences434–429 Mya — about 16 occurrences429–423 Mya — about 26 occurrences423–417 Mya — about 6 occurrences417–412 Mya — about 2 occurrences412–406 Mya — about 1 occurrence406–400 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences400–394 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences394–389 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences389–383 Mya — about 2 occurrences383–377 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences314–308 Mya — about 1 occurrence308–303 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences459.7 Mya312.8 Mya475 Mya303 Mya

134 occurrences of Kionoceras 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

134 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

62 formations

Overton — 52.48°N, 2.63°WRacine — 42.73°N, 87.78°WRacine — 42.88°N, 88.04°WRacine — 43.05°N, 88.01°WRacine — 41.85°N, 87.65°WDunleith — 43.00°N, 91.00°WMaquoketa — 45.00°N, 93.00°WMaquoketa — 43.00°N, 92.00°WCliffield — 37.08°N, 81.71°WCliffield — 37.17°N, 81.48°WCliffield — 37.13°N, 81.48°WValcour — 44.87°N, 73.41°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°WRochester Shale — 43.15°N, 77.62°WRochester Shale — 43.15°N, 77.72°WLudlowville — 42.78°N, 76.99°WLudlowville — 42.87°N, 75.71°WFremont — 38.00°N, 105.00°WFremont — 38.50°N, 105.17°WScales Shale — 43.00°N, 91.00°WVaureal — 49.00°N, 64.00°WVaureal — 49.67°N, 62.92°WJupiter — 49.20°N, 61.74°WJupiter — 49.22°N, 62.40°WBringewood Beds — 52.37°N, 2.73°WBringewood Beds — 51.90°N, 2.08°WSauquoit — 43.21°N, 75.46°WSauquoit — 43.13°N, 75.59°WArnestad — 60.00°N, 11.00°EArnestad — 60.09°N, 9.11°EHarding — 38.00°N, 105.00°WKopanina — 50.00°N, 14.35°EKopanina — 49.96°N, 14.18°ELouisville — 40.58°N, 86.67°WDecorah Shale — 45.00°N, 93.00°WDecorah Shale — 43.30°N, 91.78°WDubuque — 45.00°N, 93.00°WDubuque — 43.00°N, 91.00°WHopkinton — 43.00°N, 91.00°WHopkinton — 42.17°N, 90.58°WWether Law Linn — 55.81°N, 3.35°WBoggy — 34.45°N, 96.96°W

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The named rock units Kionoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Kionoceras and its relatives

Silurian

Where Kionoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.

Found in the same rock

1,228 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 120 sites for Kionoceras, 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

59 references

Each of the 134 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. 47 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 Kionoceras

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itKionoceratidae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on

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