Scaphites

Scaphites

Taxobox
name = "Scaphites"


image_width = 230px
image_caption = "Scaphites" sp. from Colorado
Specimen is 2.8 cm from top to bottom
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Cephalopoda
subclassis = Ammonoidea
ordo = Ammonitida
subordo = Ancyloceratina
superfamilia = Scaphitaceae
familia = Scaphitidae
subfamilia = Scaphitinae
genus = "Scaphites"
genus_authority = Parkinson, 1811
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = See text.

"Scaphites" (Greek "skafh", "a boat or anything dug or scooped out") is a genus of extinct cephalopod belonging to the family of heteromorph ammonites (suborder Ancyloceratina). They were a widespread genus that thrived during the Cretaceous period.

"Scaphites" generally have a chambered, boat-shaped shell. The initial part (juvenile stage) of the shell is generally more or less involute (tightly-coiled) and compressed, giving no hint of the heteromorphic shell form yet to come. The terminal part (adult stage) is much shorter, erect, and bends over the older shell like a hook. They have transverse, branching ribs with tubercles (small bumps) along the venter.

Reconstructions of the body within the shell can be made to portray "Scaphites" as either a benthic (bottom-dwelling) or planktonic animal, depending on where the center of gravity is located. Since useful fossils of the soft-body parts of cephalopods are highly rare, little is known about how this animal actually fit into its shell and lived its life.

Because "Scaphites" and its relatives in Superfamily Scaphitaceae are restricted to certain divisions of the Cretaceous ("ca." 144 to 66.4 million years ago), they are useful in some areas as an index fossil. A notable example is the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway in North America, in which several endemic lineages of scaphite species evolved and now serve as the basis for a highly resolved regional biostratigraphy.

pecies

* "Scaphites binneyi" † Reeside 1927a
* "Scaphites carlilensis" † Morrow 1935
* "Scaphites depressus" † Reeside 1927a
* "Scaphites ferronensis" † Cobban, 1951b
* "Scaphites frontierensis" † Cobban 1951b
* "Scaphites hippocrepis" † (DeKay) 1827
* "Scaphites impendicostatus" † Cobban 1951b
* "Scaphites leei" † Reeside 1927b
* "Scaphites nanus" † Reeside 1927b
* "Scaphites nodosus" †
* "Scaphites obliquus" † J. Sowerby 1813
* "Scaphites preventricosus" † Cobban 1951b
* "Scaphites tetonensis" † Cobban 1951b
* "Scaphites uintensis" † Cobban 1951b
* "Scaphites warreni" † Meek and Hayden 1860
* "Scaphites whitfieldi" † Cobban 1951b

References and external links

* [http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/ammonites/moreammonites.html Hypoothetical reconstructions of various genera of Ancyloceratida]
* [http://www.ammonoid.com/Scaphites.htm Ammonite.com]
* [http://www.ammonoid.com/ufc-Strat.htm A Biostratigraphic List of Fossil Cephalopods in Utah]


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  • scaphites — sca·phi·tes …   English syllables

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  • Scaphite — Scaph ite, n. [L. scapha a boat, fr. Gr. ska fh a boat, anything dug or scooped out, fr. ska ptein to dig.] (Paleon.) Any fossil cephalopod shell of the genus {Scaphites}, belonging to the Ammonite family and having a chambered boat shaped shell …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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