Mammites

Mammites Temporal range: upper Cretaceous, (Turonian)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Subclass:	Ammonoidea
Order:	Ammonitida
Suborder:	Ammonitina
Superfamily:	Acanthocerataceae
Family:	Acanthoceratidae
Subfamily:	Mammitinae
Genus:	Mammites Laube and Bruder, 1887

Mammites is an Upper Cretaceous ammonite belonging to the acanthoceratacean family, Acanthoceratidae, and is the type genus for the subfamily Mammitinae. It was named by Laube and Bruder in 1887. It range is Lower to Upper Turonian.

Mammites is typically stout, usually with a rectangular or squarish whorl section and flattish to slightly concave venter. Ornamentation is dominated by strong umbilical tubercles and moderate inner and outer ventrolateral tubercles. Ribs are somewhat prominent in juveniles stages but tend to become inconspicuous in the adult. The suture is ammonitic but rather simple. Some species, those with broad first lateral lobes in the suture, have been reassigned to Morrowites.

Mammites and Morrowites are rather similar except that Mammites as redefined has a narrow first later lobe while that in Morrowites is broad and the early whorls in Morrowites are smooth except for widely spaced ribs and constrictions while those in Mammites have normal ribs and tubercles.

References

• Arkell et al, 1957, Mesozoic Ammonoidea, Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part L. Geological Soc. of America, Univ of Kansas Press. R.C. Moore, (Ed)
• W. A. Cobban and Hook, S. C. 1983 Mid-Cretaceous (Turonian) ammonite fauna from Fence Lake area of west-central New Mexico. Memoir 41, New Mexico Bureau of Mines&Mineral Resources, Socorro NM.
• W. A. Cobban and Hook, S. C. 1979, Collignoniceras woollgari wooollgari (Mantell) ammonite fauna from Upper Cretaceous of Western Interior, United States. Memoir 37, New Mexico Bureau of Mines&Mineral Resources, Socorro NM.