Passaloteuthis

Passaloteuthis is a genus of belemnite, an extinct group of cephalopods. Belemnites are typically known for having about 40 micro-hooks on each one of its appendage. However, Passaloteuthis is notable for being associated with a pair of mega-hooks known as onychites. These hooks are tentatively interpreted as male-specific features, though their exact function is still unknown.

Passaloteuthis

Adrian Pingstone ( Arpingstone ) · 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
PassaloteuthididaePBDB
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 3.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 184.2 Mya to 180.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 192.9 Mya to 170.9 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 95 of 95 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 95 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic193–193 Mya — about 3 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 8 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 8 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 8 occurrences190–190 Mya — about 8 occurrences190–189 Mya — about 8 occurrences189–188 Mya — about 8 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 8 occurrences187–187 Mya — about 8 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 8 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 8 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 8 occurrences184–183 Mya — about 4 occurrences183–183 Mya — about 3 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–172 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–170 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences184.2 Mya180.4 Mya193.4 Mya170.4 Mya

95 occurrences of Passaloteuthis 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

95 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

9 formations

Belemnite Marls — 50.72°N, 2.85°WBelemnite Marls — 50.73°N, 2.87°WMarnes de Villeneuve — 43.85°N, 3.12°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.72°N, 2.82°WCharmouth Mudstone — 50.75°N, 2.90°WLower Lias — 51.80°N, 1.88°WCorniola — 41.96°N, 12.80°ECorniola — 43.05°N, 12.67°EBraunjura alpha & Braunjura beta — 48.90°N, 7.67°ECape Stewart — 70.46°N, 22.33°WStaa — 36.37°N, 10.09°EAmaltheenton — 49.35°N, 11.36°E

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The named rock units Passaloteuthis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Passaloteuthis and its relatives

Early Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

333 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 79 sites for Passaloteuthis, 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

12 references

Each of the 95 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 content1

Picture of Passaloteuthis

Credit
Adrian Pingstone ( Arpingstone )
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Passaloteuthis 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 itPassaloteuthididae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.