Turrilitidae

Turrilitidae is a family of extinct heteromorph ammonite cephalopods. All members had shells that coiled helically that tended to resemble auger shells. The ecological roles turrilitids played is largely unknown, as experts are still speculating what niches they filled. Some are suspected of floating in the water column, while others, such as the eponymous Turrilites, are believed to have been bottom-dwellers. The name of the type genus Turrilites is a hybrid formation based on Latin turris "tower" and Greek lithos "stone", coined by Lamarck in 1801.

Turrilitidae

Momotarou2012 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
TurrilitoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ammonoidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ammonoidea
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Ammonoidea
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Cephalopoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Cephalopoda

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 151 of 581 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 430 of 581 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 581 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 1 occurrence113–111 Mya — about 8 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 7 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 7 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 26 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 41 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 41 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 86 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 123 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 123 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 110 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences110.1 Mya72.2 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

581 occurrences of Turrilitidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

581 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

78 formations

Grès verts helvétiques — 45.91°N, 6.49°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.09°N, 6.76°EGrès verts helvétiques — 45.96°N, 6.69°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.04°N, 6.62°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.02°N, 6.75°EGrès verts helvétiques — 45.96°N, 6.54°ECalcaires de Fiz — 45.96°N, 6.68°ECalcaires de Fiz — 46.04°N, 6.62°ECalcaires de Fiz — 45.98°N, 6.79°ECalcaires de Fiz — 46.13°N, 6.80°EBuda Limestone — 30.71°N, 104.77°WBuda Limestone — 31.04°N, 104.05°WBuda Limestone — 30.22°N, 100.00°WBuda Limestone — 30.05°N, 98.03°WBuda Limestone — 30.70°N, 104.08°WBuda Limestone — 30.26°N, 97.75°WAitamir — 36.20°N, 60.83°EAitamir — 36.23°N, 60.40°EAitamir — 37.56°N, 57.55°EAitamir — 36.62°N, 60.07°ELower Chalk — 50.92°N, 2.23°WLower Chalk — 51.83°N, 5.10°WLower Chalk — 50.83°N, 2.55°WLower Chalk — 50.83°N, 2.60°WLower Chalk — 50.80°N, 2.67°WBeer Head Limestone — 51.08°N, 1.18°EBeer Head Limestone — 50.75°N, 2.33°WBeer Head Limestone — 50.83°N, 2.45°WBeer Head Limestone — 50.77°N, 2.57°WBeer Head Limestone — 50.80°N, 2.67°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.18°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 50.59°N, 1.24°WWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 51.20°N, 2.18°WGlauconitic Marl — 52.33°N, 2.28°WGrayson Marl — 31.60°N, 97.21°WGrayson Marl — 33.00°N, 97.19°WGrayson Marl — 33.16°N, 97.16°WCraie de Rouen — 48.60°N, 0.63°ECraie de Rouen — 49.08°N, 0.50°ECraie de Rouen — 49.44°N, 1.09°EBaddeckenstedt — 52.28°N, 7.45°EBaddeckenstedt — 52.18°N, 7.87°EHaida — 53.25°N, 132.00°WHaida — 53.05°N, 131.78°WPerte du Rhône — 46.83°N, 6.52°ECalcaires des Fiz — 45.97°N, 6.69°EUpper Greensand — 50.75°N, 2.33°WUpper Greensand — 50.87°N, 2.17°WUpper Greensand — 50.80°N, 2.67°WUpper Greensand — 50.78°N, 2.63°WBudden Canyon — 40.45°N, 122.56°WMarnes bleues — 44.33°N, 5.17°EMarnes bleues — 43.88°N, 6.86°EHikagenosawa — 44.00°N, 143.00°EHilo — 3.67°N, 74.89°WOdukpani — 5.19°N, 8.27°EOdukpani — 5.13°N, 8.35°EWangarlu Mudstone — 12.38°S, 130.60°ESaint Jouin — 49.65°N, 0.17°ESaint Jouin — 49.55°N, 0.12°EMoonkinu — 11.80°S, 130.40°EUnnamed Vocontian — 43.22°N, 5.53°EUnnamed Vocontian — 43.73°N, 6.90°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Turrilitidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 54 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 244 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Turrilitidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Turrilitidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 361 sites for Turrilitidae, 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

89 references

Each of the 581 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. 77 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 Turrilitidae

Credit
Momotarou2012
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Turrilitidae 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 itTurrilitoidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gill 1871