Ophiomorpha

Ophiomorpha is an ichnotaxon, usually interpreted as a burrow of an organism living in the near-shore environment. The burrow lining is more or less smooth on the inside, and densely to strongly mammalated or nodose on the outside, due to the packing of nodules for support of the burrow. Branching is irregular but Y-shaped where present. It is often considered part of the Skolithos ichnofacies, where it has occurred since the early Permian, though it has also occurred in deep water settings since the Late Jurassic, such as well-oxygenated turbidites.

A picture published with the record for Ophiomorpha. What it shows has not been checked.

Jstuby at en.wikipedia · 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
IchnofossilsPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 251 million years on record.

The record covers at least 251.902 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 65 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 0 of 65 occurrencesSilurian — about 0 of 65 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 65 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 65 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 65 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 65 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 65 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 65 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 8 of 65 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 65 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 65 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 5 of 65 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 14 of 65 occurrencesPaleocene — about 4 of 65 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 65 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 65 occurrencesMiocene — about 10 of 65 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 65 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 65 occurrences550–531 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences531–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–495 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences495–476 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences476–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–440 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences440–421 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences421–403 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences403–385 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences385–366 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences366–348 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences348–330 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences330–311 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences311–293 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences293–275 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences275–256 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences256–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences202–183 Mya — about 8 occurrences183–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–147 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences147–128 Mya — about 3 occurrences128–110 Mya — about 1 occurrence110–92 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–73 Mya — about 5 occurrences73–55 Mya — about 12 occurrences55–37 Mya — about 11 occurrences37–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–0 Mya — about 17 occurrences251.902 Mya11.7 ka550 Mya0 Mya

65 occurrences of Ophiomorpha 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

65 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

38 formations

Fox Hills — 45.14°N, 100.88°WFox Hills — 44.52°N, 102.39°WFox Hills — 46.10°N, 100.43°WChaya — 21.97°N, 70.50°EArdanatz Sandstone — 42.81°N, 1.56°WAguja — 29.17°N, 103.62°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAgrio — 37.75°S, 69.92°WAgrio — 37.86°S, 69.99°WCape Stewart Beds — 70.46°N, 22.71°WEzkaba Sandstone — 42.82°N, 1.67°WCampello-Villajoyosa — 38.43°N, 0.35°WWoolwich and Reading — 51.52°N, 0.08°WChari — 23.30°N, 69.97°ELa Posa — 42.27°N, 0.73°EHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WAvon Park — 29.01°N, 82.65°WFort Union — 46.83°N, 100.88°WGoose Creek — 33.33°N, 80.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.90°N, 90.19°WNeptune Glacier — 71.75°S, 68.50°WAbanico Brisa Mar — 17.95°N, 102.21°WLower Red Garumnian — 42.17°N, 1.24°EIhungia — 40.30°S, 176.28°ESanta Marta — 63.75°S, 58.00°WMancos Shale — 35.73°N, 106.90°WTaime — 4.32°S, 81.25°WWinona — 32.17°N, 88.83°W

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The named rock units Ophiomorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ophiomorpha and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Ophiomorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

717 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 46 sites for Ophiomorpha, 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

49 references

Each of the 65 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. 37 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 content2

Picture of Ophiomorpha

Credit
Jstuby at en.wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
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 itIchnofossils through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lundgren 1891