Nipponites
Nipponites is an extinct genus of heteromorph ammonites. The shells of Nipponites form "ox-bow" bends, resulting in some of the most bizarre shapes seen among ammonites.

Momotarou2012 · 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
- NostoceratidaePBDB
- 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 least 17 million years on record.
The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 66 Mya.
7 occurrences of Nipponites on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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
7 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
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
2 formations
- Bykov Formation4
- Ashizawa Formation · Futaba Group1
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The named rock units Nipponites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Nipponites and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Nipponites and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
41 taxa- Inoceramus5 sites
- Gaudryceras (Gaudryceras) denseplicatum3 sites
- Inoceramus hobetsensis3 sites
- Tetragonites glabrus3 sites
- Yezoites puerculus3 sites
- Damesites2 sites
- Gaudryceras tenuiliratum2 sites
- Hypophylloceras (Neophylloceras) ramosum2 sites
- Inoceramus lamarcki2 sites
- Inoceramus teshioensis2 sites
- Jimboiceras planulatiforme2 sites
- Mytiloides incertus2 sites
- Scalarites2 sites
- Scalarites mihoensis2 sites
- Tragodesmoceroides subcostatus2 sites
- Anagaudryceras1 site
- Birostrina1 site
- Coelurosauria1 site
- Didymoceras (Eubostrychoceras) japonicum1 site
- Fagesia1 site
- Gaudryceras1 site
- Gaudryceras (Neogaudryceras) tenuliratum ornata1 site
- Hadrosauroidea1 site
- Hyphantoceras1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Nipponites, 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
4 references- The Cenomanian/Turonian boundary in Sakhalin, Far East Russia: ammonites, inoceramids, foraminifera, and radiolarians4
- [Dinosaur fossils from the Futaba Group, Hirono, Fukushima Prefecture]1
- Preliminary report on the Cretaceous reptile fossils from Hokkaido1
- The Upper Cretaceous cephalopods of Japan, Part I1
Each of the 7 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 Nipponites
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Momotarou2012
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Nipponites mirabilis · USNM:PAL:USNM PAL482428
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Nipponites”
- 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 itNostoceratidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Yabe 1904