Pterotheca expansa

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
- PterothecaPBDB
- Diet
- detritivorePBDB, for Pterothecidae
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Pterothecidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Pterothecidae
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Bellerophontida
Time the record covers
At least 900 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 457.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 449.6 Mya.
13 occurrences of Pterotheca expansa 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
13 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
8 formations
- Chaumont Formation5
- Lexington Limestone Formation2
- Chaumont Formation · Black River Group1
- Tyrone Limestone Formation · High Bridge Group1
- Bobcaygeon Formation1
- Lowville Formation · Ottawa Group1
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The named rock units Pterotheca expansa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Pterotheca expansa and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Pterotheca expansa and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
257 taxa- Helicotoma planulata7 sites
- Lophospira milleri7 sites
- Clathrospira subconica6 sites
- Hormotoma gracilis6 sites
- Liospira vitruvia6 sites
- Lophospira perangulata5 sites
- Lophospira serrulata5 sites
- Eotomaria dryope4 sites
- Eunema helicteres4 sites
- Lophospira ventricosa4 sites
- Macroscenella superba4 sites
- Omospira alexandra4 sites
- Paraliospira larvata4 sites
- Paraliospira supracingulata4 sites
- Carinaropsis minima3 sites
- Ctenodonta nasuta3 sites
- Eunema centralis3 sites
- Holopea pyrene3 sites
- Maclurina logani3 sites
- Salpingostoma billingsi3 sites
- Salpingostoma expansa3 sites
- Sinuites cancellatus3 sites
- Straparollina circe3 sites
- Subulites regularis3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Pterotheca expansa, 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
6 references- Gastropoda and Conularida of the Ottawa Formation of the Ottawa - St. Lawrence Lowland6
- Middle and Upper Ordovician symmetrical univalved mollusks (Monoplacophora and Bellerophontina) of the Cincinnati Arch region3
- Platteville and Decorah Trilobites from Illinois and Wisconsin1
- A Middle Ordovician fauna from Braeside, Ottawa Valley, Ontario1
- Paleontology of the disturbed Ordovician rocks near Kentland, Indiana1
- The fauna of the residuary Auburn chert of Lincoln County, Missouri1
Each of the 13 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 Pterotheca expansa
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Pterotheca expansa 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 itPterotheca through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Emmons 1842)