Macroscaphites

Macroscaphites is an extinct cephalopod genus included in the Ammonoidea that lived during the Barremian and Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous (118 - 110 million years ago). Its fossils have been found throughout most of Europe and North Africa.

Macroscaphites
Temporal range: Barremian-Turonian
~130–90 Ma[1]
Macroscaphites yvani
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Cephalopoda
Subclass:
Ammonoidea
Order:
Ammonitida
Suborder:
Lytoceratina
Family:
Lytoceratidae
Genus:
Macroscaphites

Meek, 1876
Species[2]
  • M. (Costidiscus)
  • M. (Macroscaphites)
  • M. striatisulcatus
  • M. juani

Macroscaphites is known to have reached a length of about 20–30 centimetres (7.9–11.8 in). The shell is in two basic parts, an early planispirally coiled evolute section followed by a more or less straight section that turns back on itself in a hook.

On the basis of studies conducted on the shape of the shell (which take into account the specific weight of the live animal and respective position of the centers of gravity and buoyancy) paleontologists have concluded that this animal lived with the aperture directed toward the surface of the water; the coiled portion upward and the U-shaped-hook directed towards the ocean floor.

List of species
Macroscaphites tirolensis
  • Macroscaphites juani (Puzos 1832) ; Cuba
  • Macroscaphites soaresi (Da Silva 1962) ; Mozambique
  • Macroscaphites striasulcatus (Meek 1876)
  • Macroscaphites tirolensis (Uhlig, 1887) ; South Tyrol, Italy

Fossil locations

Fossils of Macroscaphites have been found in:[3]

Eurasia
  • Bulgaria
  • Luckovska Formation, the Czech Republic
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Italy
  • Serbia and Montenegro
  • Forcall Formation, Spain
Laurentia
  • Mexico
Africa
  • Egypt
  • Mozambique
  • Makatini Formation, South Africa
South America
  • García Formation, Venezuela

References
  1. Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "Sepkoski's Online Genus Database". Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  2. "Paleobiology Database - Macroscaphites". Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  3. Macroscaphites at Fossilworks.org

Bibliography
  • William James Kennedy, Herbert Christian Klinger, Mikheil V. Kakabadze, « Macroscaphites Meek, 1876, a heteromorph ammonite from the Lower Aptian of southern Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal », African Natural History, vol.5, p. 37-41.
  • A. Cantu-Chapa, « Présence de Macroscaphites, Ammonite du Crétacé inférieur de Oaxaca (sud du Mexique) », Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, vol.15, n°1 (1998), p. 106-108.
  • G. Delanoy, J. A. Moreno-Bedmar, J.J. Ruiz and D. Tolós Lládser. 2013. Xerticeras gen. nov., a new genus of micromorphic heteromorph ammonite (Ancyloceratina, Ancyloceratidae)from the lower Aptian of Spain. Carnets de Géologie [Notebooks on Geology] CG2013_A02:89-103
  • O. Renz. 1982. The Cretaceous ammonites of Venezuela 1-132
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