Pseudorthoceras

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
- PseudorthoceratinaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Motility
- fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Time the record covers
At least 114 million years on record.
The record covers at least 368.5 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 372.15 Mya to 251.902 Mya.
305 occurrences of Pseudorthoceras on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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
305 occurrences- Devonianunder 1%
- Carboniferous79%
- Permian21%
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
95 formations
- Graham Formation · Cisco Group47
- Wewoka Formation23
- Hale Formation · Morrow Group21
- Second Abden Shale Formation17
- Cabaniss Formation · Cherokee Group11
- Bloyd Shale Formation9
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The named rock units Pseudorthoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 71 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Pseudorthoceras and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Pseudorthoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
1,654 taxa- Crinoidea58 sites
- Trepospira illinoisensis50 sites
- Crurithyris planoconvexa42 sites
- Composita subtilita34 sites
- Glabrocingulum grayvillense34 sites
- Nuculopsis girtyi34 sites
- Glabrocingulum32 sites
- Ianthinopsis32 sites
- Astartella concentrica31 sites
- Echinoidea29 sites
- Parajuresania nebrascensis27 sites
- Worthenia tabulata25 sites
- Euphemites carbonarius24 sites
- Lophophyllidium24 sites
- Condrathyris perplexa23 sites
- Euphemites23 sites
- Hustedia mormoni22 sites
- Polidevcia bellistriata22 sites
- Derbyia crassa21 sites
- Meekospira21 sites
- Meekospira peracuta21 sites
- Anthraconeilo taffiana20 sites
- Kutorginella lasallensis20 sites
- Lingula carbonaria20 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 277 sites for Pseudorthoceras, and this reads 240 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
70 references- Carboniferous Cephalopods of Arkansas56
- The surficial geology, paleontology, and paleoecology of the Finis Shale (Pennsylvanian, Lower Virgilian) in Jack County, Texas46
- Revision of some common Carboniferous genera of North American orthocerid nautiloids37
- Marine Communities of a Portion of the Wewoka Formation (Pennsylvanian) in Hughes County, Oklahoma19
- The paleoecology of a Lower Carboniferous marine transgression18
- Desmoinesian Brachiopoda and Mollusca from southwest Missouri13
- Invertebrate Faunas from The Blaine and The Dog Creek Formations of the Permain Leonard Series10
- Early Permian fossil communities in northeastern Nevada and northwestern Utah6
- Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Uppermost Pennsylvanian and Lowermost Permian Rocks in Kansas6
- Supai Formation (Permian) of eastern Arizona4
- American Permian nautiloids4
- Permian nautiloids from the Glass Mountains and the Sierra Diablo of west Texas4
Each of the 305 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. 58 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 Pseudorthoceras
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Pseudorthoceras 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPseudorthoceratinae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Girty 1912