Tarphyceras

Tarphyceras is a genus of tarphyceratid with whorls rounded in cross section, having a deeply impressed dorsum and a ventral to subcentral siphuncle, known from the Lower Ord of North America. It differs from Campbelloceras in that Campbelloceras is only slightly impressed, from Centrotarphyceras in that Centrotarphyceras is subquadrate and has a central siphuncle, and from Trocholites in that although Trocholites is subcircular in cross section, the siphuncle is subdorsal.

Tarphyceras

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
TarphyceratidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cephalopoda
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Tarphycerida
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 481.7 Mya to 469.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.85 Mya to 457.3 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 23 occurrencesOrdovician — about 23 of 23 occurrencesOrdovician487–486 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences486–485 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences485–484 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences484–483 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences483–482 Mya — about 1 occurrence482–481 Mya — about 1 occurrence481–480 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences480–479 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences479–478 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences478–477 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences477–476 Mya — about 2 occurrences476–475 Mya — about 2 occurrences475–474 Mya — about 2 occurrences474–473 Mya — about 2 occurrences473–472 Mya — about 2 occurrences472–471 Mya — about 1 occurrence471–470 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences470–469 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences481.7 Mya469.4 Mya487.4 Mya456.7 Mya

23 occurrences of Tarphyceras 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

23 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

12 formations

Boat Harbour — 50.71°N, 57.33°WBoat Harbour — 48.54°N, 58.74°WFort Cassin — 43.91°N, 73.42°WFort Cassin — 44.21°N, 73.25°WFort Cassin — 44.60°N, 73.44°WHoneycut — 30.27°N, 97.74°WHoneycut — 30.27°N, 98.35°WKindblade — 34.37°N, 97.13°WKindblade — 34.42°N, 97.27°WSt. George — 48.56°N, 58.72°WRomaine — 50.24°N, 63.68°WRochdale — 41.44°N, 74.36°WPowell — 36.93°N, 93.06°WCotter — 36.93°N, 93.06°WCrown Point — 44.62°N, 73.42°WCroisaphuill — 58.62°N, 4.87°WShihtien — 24.77°N, 99.15°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tarphyceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tarphyceras and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Tarphyceras and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

143 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Tarphyceras, 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

8 references

Each of the 23 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 Tarphyceras

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tarphyceras 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 itTarphyceratidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hyatt 1894