Cameroceras
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 Cameroceras trentonese
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Extinct (fossil)
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Cameroceras ("chambered horn") was a genus of giant orthocone cephalopods that lived in the Ordovician period.
The partial shell of one giant Cameroceras yielded an estimated total length of nearly 30 feet. This gargantuan cephalopod was one of the largest animals ever to live during the Ordovician period, if not the largest. As a result of its huge size, it was an apex predator that lived in deeper water (it would have been unable to manouver in shallow water), and probably fed on eurypterids, such as Megalograptus, large trilobites, and smaller cephalopods. "Walking With Monsters" fancifully suggests that it was largely blind, having large, yet feeble eyes.
It was featured in the Ordovician section of the BBC series Sea Monsters (a spin-off to the successful Walking with Dinosaurs) as the top predator, and also had a brief cameo in Walking with Monsters, bobbing in the water. In the Walking With Dinosaurs companion books, it is misspelled as "Cameraceras".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Haines, Tim, & Chambers, Paul. 2005. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. BBC Books, London.
- Sweet, Walter C. Cephalopoda--General Features in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part K, Mollusca 3. Geological Society of America, and University of Kansas Press. Page K5.
- Teichert, Curt. 1964. Endoceratoidea in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part K, Mollusca 3. Geological Society of America, and University of Kansas Press. Page K174.
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