Macroscaphites

Macroscaphites Temporal range: Barremian–Turonian[1] PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
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. yuani

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 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 yvani (Puzos 1832) ; Cuba, Colombia
• Macroscaphites soaresi (Da Silva 1962) ; Mozambique

References

Notes

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.