Oncoceras

Oncoceras is a genus of oncocerids, family Oncoceratidae from the middle and upper Ordovician of North America and Europe.

Oncoceras

Antonov · Public Domain · 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
OncoceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Oncocerida
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Oncocerida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 38 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 419.62 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 393.47 Mya.

Ordovician — about 33 of 37 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 3 of 37 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 1 of 37 occurrencesDevonian473–470 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences470–467 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences467–465 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences465–462 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences462–459 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences459–457 Mya — about 2 occurrences457–454 Mya — about 6 occurrences454–451 Mya — about 9 occurrences451–449 Mya — about 6 occurrences449–446 Mya — about 6 occurrences446–443 Mya — about 3 occurrences443–440 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences440–438 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences438–435 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences435–432 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences427–424 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences424–422 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences422–419 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences419–416 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416–413 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences413–411 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences411–408 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences408–405 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences405–403 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences403–400 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences400–397 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences397–395 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences395–392 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences458.2 Mya419.62 Mya473 Mya392 Mya

37 occurrences of Oncoceras 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

37 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

18 formations

Whitewater — 39.00°N, 84.00°WDunleith — 43.00°N, 91.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.21°N, 75.46°WDenley Limestone — 44.00°N, 75.00°WDenley Limestone — 43.28°N, 75.14°WWaynesville — 39.45°N, 83.83°WWaynesville — 39.00°N, 84.00°WNachusa — 43.00°N, 91.00°WQuimbys Mill — 43.00°N, 91.00°WLexington — 37.79°N, 84.50°WKings Falls — 43.21°N, 75.46°WKopanina — 50.00°N, 14.35°EKellerwand — 46.61°N, 13.00°EStonington — 45.67°N, 86.97°WBad Cache Rapids — 69.00°N, 81.67°WValcour — 44.89°N, 73.44°WSodus — 43.15°N, 75.56°WTyrone Limestone — 37.83°N, 84.55°WLexington Limestone — 38.05°N, 84.18°WVaureal — 49.67°N, 62.92°WAkdombak — 48.52°N, 78.87°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Oncoceras 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.

Oncoceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Oncoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

592 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Oncoceras, 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

15 references

Each of the 37 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. 3 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 Oncoceras

Credit
Antonov
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oncoceras was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itOncoceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hall 1847