A few interesting fossil cephs.

Phil

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A few more fossil cephalopods for you that I have acquired recently:

1. Not very spectacular but here we have two body chambers of the Upper Cretaceous ammonite Baculites. It has a lovely iridescent hue which unfortunately does not really come across well in the photo. Baculites was a straight shelled ammonite which sometimes grew up to 2m in length. Neale has written that this form of ammonite may have lived with their head facing downwards with the body hanging vertically above, perhaps analogous to a modern cranchid squid. It seems that unlike the superficially similar earlier orthoconic nautiloids, Baculites had no counterweight at the apex of its shell so could not have horizontally orientated. These are some of the very latest ammonites.

2. This is a Triassic period ceratite from Timor. The ceratites were a group of cephalopods that rose to dominance in the Triassic following the disappearance of the goniatites at the end of the Permian and were themselves replaced in the Jurassic by the ammonites. The ceratites had more complex sutures than the goniatites but were generally not as complex as the ammonites. The distinctive saddle and lobe arrangement can be easily seen here in this polished specimen. I’m not sure of the species, any help would be appreciated.

3.Belemnite sp. This specimen is about 190 million years old (Early Jurassic) and was collected from the Alum Shales at Port Mulgrave in North Yorkshire. (UK). It has been glued back together in four places and has been slightly crushed at one end. Nice specimen; again, I’m not sure of the species though I suspect it may be Acrocoelites. Any ideas anyone?
 

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