Proterocameroceratidae
Proterocameroceratidae is an extinct family of nautiloids. They the first of the Endocerida. They began early in the Ordovician with Proendoceras or similar genus which had developed endocones, replacing the diaphragms of the ellesmerocerid ancestor.

The original uploader was Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
- EndoceridaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Endocerida
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Endocerida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Endocerida
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Time the record covers
At least 20 million years on record.
The record covers at least 481.7 Mya to 461.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 457.3 Mya.
146 occurrences of Proterocameroceratidae 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
146 occurrences- Ordovician100%
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
41 formations
- Rockdale Run Formation16
- Ben Suardal Limestone Formation · Durness Group15
- Rochdale Formation · Beekmantown Group14
- Croisaphuill Formation · Durness Group14
- Lianjiashan Formation10
- Fort Cassin Formation · Beekmantown Group7
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The named rock units Proterocameroceratidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Proterocameroceratidae and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Proterocameroceratidae and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
496 taxa- Proterocameroceras16 sites
- Clitendoceras12 sites
- Ophileta12 sites
- Platysiphon11 sites
- Archaeoscyphia10 sites
- Coreanoceras8 sites
- Mcqueenoceras jeffersonense8 sites
- Protocycloceras8 sites
- Drepanodus7 sites
- Hopeioceras7 sites
- Hormotoma7 sites
- Manchuroceras7 sites
- Mcqueenoceras7 sites
- Oistodus7 sites
- Proterocameroceras brainerdi7 sites
- Proterocameroceras durinum7 sites
- Acodus6 sites
- Cameroceras6 sites
- Dictyonema6 sites
- Ecculiomphalus6 sites
- Finkelnburgia6 sites
- Tritoechia6 sites
- Buttsoceras5 sites
- Cassinoceras wortheni5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 94 sites for Proterocameroceratidae, 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
35 references- The Lower Ordovician cephalopod faunas of the Durness Group, North-West Scotland31
- Ozarkian and Canadian cephalopods. Part II, Brevicones17
- Beekmantown Group (Lower Ordovician) of Maryland16
- Onset of the Ordovician cephalopod radiation - evidence from the Rochdale Formation (middle Early Ordovician, Stairsian)in eastern New York13
- Biostratigraphy of the Yangtze Gorge Area. Part (2) Early Paleozoic Era8
- Regional Stratigraphic Table of North China6
- Cephalopods and Paleoenvironments of the Fort Cassin Formation (Upper Lower Ordovician), eastern New York and adjacent Vermont5
- No.5 The Ordovician System of China5
- Organic buildups in the Lower Ordovician (Canadian) of Texas and Oklahoma4
- Razrez ordovika i silura reki Moiero, Sibirskaya platforma (Ordovician and Silurian sequence of the Moiero River, Siberian platform)4
- A review of the endocerid cephalopod Protocyptendoceras from the Floian (Lower Ordovician)of the Eastern Cordillera, Argentina3
- Regional stratigraphic data of central South China3
Each of the 146 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. 23 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 Proterocameroceratidae
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- The original uploader was Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia .
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Proterocameroceratidae 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 itEndocerida through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kobayashi 1937