Didymoceras

Didymoceras
Temporal range: Upper Campanian
Artist's reconstruction of D. stevensoni, D. nebrascensis, and D. cheyennese
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
Suborder: Ancyloceratina
Superfamily: Turrilitaceae
Family: Nostoceratidae?
Genus: Didymoceras
Hyatt, 1894
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Cirroceras Conrad, 1866
  • Helicoceras d'Orbigny, 1842
  • Helicoceras Whitfield, 1877
  • Emperoceras Hyatt, 1894
  • Didymoceratoides Kennedy & Cobban, 1993

Didymoceras is an extinct genus of ammonite cephalopod. It is one of the most bizarrely shaped genera, with a shell that spirals upwards into a loose, hooked tip. It is thought to have drifted in the water vertically, moving up and down. The generic name is Latin for "paired horns".

Its taxonomic place is often in flux, being placed in either Turrilitidae, Nostoceratidae, or its own family, Didymoceratidae. Species included in the genus are the following:[1]

References

  1. "Didymoceras Hyatt 1900". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Didymoceras.