Baculitidae

Baculitidae
Temporal range: late Early - Late Cretaceous (Alb - Maasticht)
Baculite fossils from South Dakota. Some
still have traces of the original nacre (shells).
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
Order: Ammonitida
Suborder: Ancyloceratina
Family: Baculitidae
Gill, 1871
Genera
  • Baculites
  • Boehmoceras
  • Eubaculites
  • Euhomaloceras
  • Fresvillia
  • Hyphantoceras
  • Lechites
  • Pseudobaculites
  • Sciponoceras
  • Tuberosciponoceras

Baculitidae is a family of extinct ammonoid cephalopods that lived mostly during the Late Cretaceous, and often included in the suborder Ancyloceratina.

Baculitid genera are characterized by a small to minute initial coil of about two whorls followed by a long straight or slightly curved shaft. Genera are distinguished on the basis of size, general shape, particulars of the suture, and ornamentation. The genus Baculites has a large number of recognized species of which many if not most may be synomymous.

Related families are the Anisoceratidae, Diplomoceratidae, Hamitidae, Nostoceratidae, and Turrilitidae; all of which along with the Baculitidae are included in the superfamily Turrilitaceae.[1]

References

  1. ^ Arkell, W.J.; Kummel, B.; Wright, C.W. (1957). Mesozoic Ammonoidea. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part L, Mollusca 4. Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.