Baculites - Citizendia

Baculites
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous

Baculites fossils from South Dakota. Somestill have traces of the original nacre (shells).

Baculites fossils from South Dakota. Late Cretaceous (100mya - 65mya refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period, named after the famous white Chalk cliffs of southern England Some
still have traces of the original nacre (shells). Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic Composite material produced by some Mollusks as an inner shell layer

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Subclass:	Ammonoidea
Order:	Ammonitida
Suborder:	Ancyloceratina
Family:	Baculitidae
Genus:	Baculites

Species

all extinct

Baculites ("walking stick rock") is a genus of extinct marine animals in the phylum Mollusca and class Cephalopoda. Molluscs are animals belonging to the phylum Mollusca. There are around 250000 extant Species within the phylum with an estimated 70000 The cephalopods ( Greek plural (kephalópoda "head-feet" are the Mollusc class Cephalopoda characterized by Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in the class Cephalopoda phylum Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in the class Cephalopoda phylum The Ancyloceratina were a diverse suborder of Ammonite most closely related to the ammonites of order Lytoceratina. Baculitidae is an extinct family of Cephalopods belonging to the Ammonite suborder Ancyloceratina. In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. A phylum ( Plural: phyla) is a Taxonomic rank between Kingdom and above Class. Molluscs are animals belonging to the phylum Mollusca. There are around 250000 extant Species within the phylum with an estimated 70000 A class is the Taxonomic rank in the Biological classification of organisms in Biology below phylum and above order. The cephalopods ( Greek plural (kephalópoda "head-feet" are the Mollusc class Cephalopoda characterized by They are a nearly straight-shelled type of heteromorph ammonite that lived worldwide throughout the Late Cretaceous period. Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in the class Cephalopoda phylum The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of The genus was named by the French paleontologist Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny in 1850. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal.

Baculites grew up to two meters long and have long been thought to have lived in a vertical orientation with the head hanging straight down. Without a counterweight to the head at the apex of complete shells, researchers believed this was the only way the animal could have been oriented, so the animal could have swum with great agility vertically (but probably very poorly, if at all, horizontally). More recent research, notably by Gerd Westermann, has shown that at least some Baculites species were capable of an orientation closer to horizontal.

The shells of Baculites grew in a coil during the early juvenile stage (up to about 1 cm in diameter), but as the animal matured, the shells grew long and straight. Adult baculites ranged in size from about seven centimeters (Baculites larsoni) up to two meters in length. From shell isotope studies, it is thought that Baculites inhabited the middle part of the water column, not too close to either the bottom or surface of the ocean.

In some rock deposits Baculites fossils are common, and they are thought to have lived in great shoals. FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. However, they are not known to occur so densely as to be rock-forming, as do certain other extinct, straight-shelled cephalopods (e. g. ,"orthocone orgies"). Orthoceras ("straight horn" is a Genus of extinct Nautiloid Cephalopod. One notable feature about these animals is that it is believed the males were a third to a half the size of the females and had much lighter ribbing on the surface of the shell. As in all other ammonites, the shell consisted of a series of camerae, or body chambers, that contained gas which kept the animal buoyant. This page is about the physical properties of gas as a state of matter In Physics, buoyancy ( BrE IPA: /ˈbɔɪənsi/ is the upward Force on an object produced by the surrounding liquid or gas in which it is These chambers were connected together by a tiny tube called a siphuncle, which connected with the head of the animal. The siphuncle is a strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a Cephalopod Mollusk. The animal itself lived in the last (i. e. , largest) chamber. In this way, the organism could regulate the gas levels in each chamber and control its buoyancy in the same manner as the Nautilus does today. Nautilus (from Greek ναυτίλος, 'sailor' is the common name of any marine creatures of the Cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole The walls separating these chambers are called septa; the line along which each septum meets the outer shell is called the suture or suture line. Like all other ammonites, baculites have intricate suture patterns on their shells that can be used to identify different species. Baculites fossils are very brittle and almost always break. They are most commonly found broken in half or several pieces, usually along suture lines. Individual chambers found this way are sometimes referred to as "stone buffalos" (due to their shapes), though the Native-American attribution typically given as part of the story behind the name is likely apocryphal.

Baculites and related Cretaceous orthocone ammonite cephalopods are often confused with the superficially similar orthocerid nautiloid cephalopods. The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in the class Cephalopoda phylum Orthocerida are an order of extinct Nautiloid Cephalopods that lived from the Early Ordovician (about 500 million years ago to the Late Permian Nautiloids are a group of marine Mollusks in the subclass Nautiloidea, which all possess an external shell the best-known example being the modern Nautiluses Both are long and tubular in form, and both are common items for sale in rock shops (often under each others' names). Both lineages evidently evolved the tubular form independently of one another, and at different times in earth history. The orthocerid nautiloids lived much longer ago (common during the Paleozoic Era and going extinct at the end of the Triassic Period) than Baculites (Late Cretaceous Period only). Orthocerida are an order of extinct Nautiloid Cephalopods that lived from the Early Ordovician (about 500 million years ago to the Late Permian Nautiloids are a group of marine Mollusks in the subclass Nautiloidea, which all possess an external shell the best-known example being the modern Nautiluses The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era (from the Greek palaio (παλαιο "old" and zoe (ζωη "life" meaning "ancient life" The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 251 to 199 Ma (million years ago The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of The two types of fossils can be distinguished by many features, most obvious among which is the suture line: simple in orthocerid nautiloids, intricately foliated in Baculites and related forms.

See also