Megateuthis

Megateuthis

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
MegateuthididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Belemnitida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 199.5 Mya to 170.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 168.6 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 16 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 11 of 16 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 16 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic202–201 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 2 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences190–188 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences184–183 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences182–180 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 1 occurrence174–172 Mya — about 1 occurrence172–171 Mya — about 1 occurrence171–170 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences170–169 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences199.5 Mya170.9 Mya202.1 Mya167.9 Mya

16 occurrences of Megateuthis 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

16 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

1 formation

Jurensismergel — 47.95°N, 7.82°E

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The named rock units Megateuthis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megateuthis and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Megateuthis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

126 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Megateuthis, 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

5 references

Each of the 16 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 content2

Picture of Megateuthis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegateuthididae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bayle 1878)