Vascoceras

Vascoceras is an extinct genus of Cretaceous ammonites included in the family Vascoceratidae. These fast-moving nektonic carnivores lived in the Cretaceous period from the late Cenomanian to the early Turonian. The type species of the genus is Vascoceras gamai from Portugal.

Vascoceras

Hectonichus · 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
VascoceratinaePBDB
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 most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 89.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 244 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 244 of 244 occurrencesLate Cretaceous101–100 Mya — about 4 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 6 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 6 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 6 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 6 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 6 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 6 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 6 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 6 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 6 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 6 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 6 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 6 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 6 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 6 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 6 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 6 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 12 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 14 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 14 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 14 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 14 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 14 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 14 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 14 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 14 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 14 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 10 occurrences101 Mya89.3 Mya

244 occurrences of Vascoceras 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

244 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

31 formations

Pindiga — 9.97°N, 10.92°EPindiga — 11.07°N, 11.80°EPindiga — 10.73°N, 11.68°EPindiga — 10.45°N, 11.70°EPindiga — 10.28°N, 11.32°EGongila — 11.03°N, 11.35°EGongila — 10.94°N, 11.45°ERhoundjaïa — 33.34°N, 0.83°ERhoundjaïa — 33.38°N, 0.71°EAbu Qada — 29.13°N, 33.28°EAbu Qada — 28.65°N, 33.24°EAbu Qada — 29.67°N, 34.50°EAbu Qada — 28.81°N, 33.50°EAbu Qada — 29.28°N, 34.72°EAbu Qada — 29.63°N, 34.40°EAbu Qada — 28.80°N, 34.48°EAbu Qada — 28.68°N, 32.42°EDukul — 9.73°N, 11.82°EDukul — 9.40°N, 11.95°EDukul — 9.91°N, 11.85°EDukul — 7.33°N, 8.75°EColorado — 32.52°N, 107.68°WColorado — 32.87°N, 108.60°WColorado — 32.70°N, 108.60°WColorado — 32.70°N, 108.37°WMancos Shale — 36.35°N, 109.82°WMancos Shale — 36.16°N, 109.84°WMancos Shale — 35.73°N, 110.82°WMancos Shale — 36.18°N, 109.88°WMancos Shale — 36.53°N, 110.09°WLa Luna — 9.62°N, 70.35°WLa Luna — 8.55°N, 71.24°WLa Luna — 9.27°N, 68.77°WCotinguiba — 10.76°S, 37.07°WCotinguiba — 10.61°S, 36.95°WHummar — 30.95°N, 35.78°EHummar — 31.25°N, 35.72°EHummar — 31.45°N, 35.75°EBahloul — 35.37°N, 9.20°EBahloul — 35.50°N, 8.88°EBahloul — 34.13°N, 9.08°EBahloul — 34.15°N, 9.08°EChoffaticeras Marlstones — 28.33°N, 6.70°EChoffaticeras Marlstones — 28.80°N, 9.07°EAgua Nueva — 26.66°N, 100.02°WRaha — 28.65°N, 33.24°ERaha — 28.81°N, 33.50°ERaha — 28.80°N, 34.48°EGreenhorn Limestone — 38.28°N, 104.72°WChispa Summit — 31.06°N, 105.25°WChispa Summit — 30.71°N, 104.78°WEze-Aku Shales — 6.43°N, 7.82°ELa Frontera — 2.89°N, 75.68°WLa Frontera — 4.54°N, 74.45°WGreenhorn — 40.22°N, 105.27°WGreenhorn — 32.54°N, 107.71°WPicofrentes — 41.12°N, 2.77°WZoo Baba — 19.83°N, 12.22°EFika Shale — 10.94°N, 11.45°EWata — 29.13°N, 33.28°EOjinaga — 30.80°N, 105.28°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Vascoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 53 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vascoceras and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

346 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 136 sites for Vascoceras, 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

50 references

Each of the 244 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. 38 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 content2

Picture of Vascoceras

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itVascoceratinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Choffat 1898