Neoptychites

Neoptychites Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous (Turonian)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Subclass:	Ammonoidea
Order:	Ammonitida
Family:	Vascoceratidae
Genus:	Neoptychites Kossmat, 1895.

Neoptychites is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod genus from the Turonian stage of the Upper Cretaceous, with a world wide distribution.

Description

Neoptychites includes extremely involute Ammonitida whose outer whorls have a high triangular section with a moderately rounded venter (the outer rim). Tho body chamber in adults is generally smooth, with a constricted aperture. The earliest whorls are smooth except for periodic constrictions; later juvenile whorls have numerous low ribs without tubercles.

Taxonomy

Neoptychites belongs to the ammonite family Vascoceratidae and is included in the subfamily Vasoceratinae. The genus was named by Kossmat in 1895. Its type species is Ammonites telinga Stoliczka, 1865 (= Ammonites cephalotus Courtiller, 1860). It is probably derived from Paravascoceras.

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.