Metacoceras

Metacoceras is a nautilitoid cephalopod from the Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian, the shell of which is moderately evolute with a subquadrate whorl section, bearing nodes on the ventral or umbilical shoulders or both, but otherwise smooth. The siphuncle is small, subcentral and orthochoanitic. The suture has shallow ventral and lateral lobes but no dorsal or annular lobe.

Metacoceras

H. Zell · CC BY 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
MetacoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nautilida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Nautilida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Nautilida
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 67 million years on record.

The record covers at least 321.3 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 323.4 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 52 of 116 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 64 of 116 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 116 occurrences325–322 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences322–320 Mya — about 3 occurrences320–317 Mya — about 3 occurrences317–315 Mya — about 1 occurrence315–312 Mya — about 2 occurrences312–310 Mya — about 4 occurrences310–307 Mya — about 4 occurrences307–305 Mya — about 5 occurrences305–303 Mya — about 10 occurrences303–300 Mya — about 14 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 8 occurrences298–295 Mya — about 3 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 2 occurrences293–290 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 8 occurrences288–285 Mya — about 8 occurrences285–283 Mya — about 7 occurrences283–280 Mya — about 5 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 5 occurrences278–275 Mya — about 5 occurrences275–273 Mya — about 2 occurrences273–270 Mya — about 1 occurrence270–268 Mya — about 1 occurrence268–265 Mya — about 2 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences263–260 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences260–258 Mya — about 2 occurrences258–255 Mya — about 3 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 5 occurrences253–250 Mya — about 3 occurrences321.3 Mya254.14 Mya325 Mya250 Mya

116 occurrences of Metacoceras on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

116 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

55 formations

Graham — 33.26°N, 98.12°WGraham — 33.13°N, 98.16°WGraham — 33.18°N, 98.12°WGraham — 33.22°N, 98.19°WGraham — 33.10°N, 98.40°WGraham — 33.12°N, 98.30°WLoray — 39.01°N, 114.88°WLoray — 39.21°N, 114.98°WLoray — 39.48°N, 115.13°WBaigendzhi — 50.60°N, 57.56°EWargal — 32.53°N, 72.20°EWargal — 32.50°N, 71.92°EWargal — 32.58°N, 71.78°ESan Andres — 32.98°N, 105.72°WSan Andres — 32.90°N, 105.24°WSan Andres — 33.22°N, 106.71°WCasper — 41.21°N, 105.53°WPanther Seep — 35.08°N, 106.65°WGastrioceras cumbriense Marine Band — 53.70°N, 2.30°WBloyd — 36.06°N, 94.15°WBloyd — 35.92°N, 94.15°WMattoon — 39.18°N, 88.60°WKaibab — 35.20°N, 111.57°WKaibab — 35.15°N, 111.65°WBlaine — 34.35°N, 99.75°WBlaine — 34.19°N, 99.85°WBoggy — 34.43°N, 96.96°WChhidru — 32.48°N, 72.20°EChhidru — 32.48°N, 71.85°ELueders — 33.46°N, 99.24°WLueders — 33.49°N, 99.26°WChangxing — 31.08°N, 119.71°EChangxing — 25.65°N, 112.48°EHolder — 33.40°N, 105.87°WMospyne — 48.24°N, 39.34°EPottawatomie — 39.16°N, 94.48°WBentham Grit — 54.00°N, 2.83°WWewoka — 35.04°N, 96.36°WArcturus — 39.38°N, 113.71°WPequop — 40.23°N, 115.16°WRed Eagle Limestone — 37.64°N, 96.49°W

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The named rock units Metacoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metacoceras and its relatives

Permian

Where Metacoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

1,245 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 98 sites for Metacoceras, 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

55 references

Each of the 116 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. 43 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 Metacoceras

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Metacoceras was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMetacoceratidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Hyatt 1883)