Lituites

Lituites is an extinct nautiloid genus from the Middle Ordovician and type for the Lituitidae that in some more recent taxonomies has been classified with the orthocerids and listed under the order Lituitida. Fossils have been found in New York, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, and China.

Lituites

Eurhinosaurus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
LituitidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lituitida
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Lituitida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 464.3 Mya to 426.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 469.4 Mya to 422.7 Mya.

Ordovician — about 44 of 46 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 2 of 46 occurrencesSilurian470–469 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences469–467 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences467–465 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 1 occurrence464–462 Mya — about 3 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 9 occurrences461–459 Mya — about 15 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 7 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 4 occurrences456–454 Mya — about 3 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences428–427 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences427–425 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences425–423 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences423–422 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences464.3 Mya426.7 Mya470.3 Mya421.8 Mya

46 occurrences of Lituites 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

46 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

21 formations

Baota — 29.00°N, 109.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 108.00°EBaota — 30.00°N, 111.00°EBaota — 31.00°N, 117.00°EBaota — 33.00°N, 106.00°EBaota — 32.00°N, 119.00°EElnes — 60.00°N, 11.00°EElnes — 57.99°N, 7.60°EElnes — 59.93°N, 10.70°EElnes — 60.79°N, 11.08°EElnes — 59.72°N, 10.14°ESeby Limestone — 57.00°N, 17.00°ESeby Limestone — 60.91°N, 15.02°ESeby Limestone — 62.97°N, 14.48°EMiaopo — 33.00°N, 111.00°EMiaopo — 32.00°N, 118.00°EFolkeslunda — 57.00°N, 17.00°EFolkeslunda — 60.91°N, 15.02°EVollen — 60.00°N, 11.00°EVollen — 60.15°N, 10.30°EShan Majiagou — 36.00°N, 114.00°EShan Majiagou — 36.00°N, 113.00°EAseri — 58.86°N, 24.08°EAseri — 58.74°N, 24.08°EVyzunai — 55.67°N, 25.38°EVyzunai — 55.55°N, 24.10°EGullhogen Mudstone — 58.00°N, 14.00°ERyd Limestone — 58.00°N, 14.00°ESegerstad Limestone — 61.00°N, 15.00°EDachao — 27.00°N, 100.00°EDatianba — 30.00°N, 117.00°ETangshan — 32.00°N, 119.00°ELower Longhope Beds — 52.00°N, 2.00°WUpper Longhope Beds — 52.00°N, 2.00°WLoobu — 59.50°N, 26.27°EFolkeslunda Limestone — 62.97°N, 14.48°EVyzunai — 56.55°N, 27.73°EShihtien — 24.77°N, 99.15°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lituites 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.

Lituites and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Lituites and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

275 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Lituites, 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

20 references

Each of the 46 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. 8 further references are not listed. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Lituites

Credit
Eurhinosaurus
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itLituitidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bertrand 1763