''Hoplites'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

that lived from the Early Albian to the beginning of the Middle Albian.Amédro, F., Matrion, B., Magniez-Jannin, F., & Touch, R. (2014). La limite Albien inférieur-Albien moyen dans l’Albien type de l’Aube (France): ammonites, foraminifères, séquences. Revue de Paléobiologie, 33(1), 159-279. Its fossils have been found in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Transcaspia The Transcaspian Oblast, or simply Transcaspia, was an oblast of the Russian Empire and early Soviet Russia to the east of the Caspian Sea during the second half of the 19th century until 1924. It was bounded to the south by Iran's Khorasan Prov ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Shell has compressed, rectangular till depressed and trapezoidal whorl section. There are strong umbilical bullae from which, prominent ribs are branching and these are interrupted on venter. Ends of ribs on the venter are prominent and can be both alternate or opposite. Some species have zigzagging ribs and these ribs ends usually thickened, or they can be raised into ventrolateral tubercles. These tubercles are mostly oblique clavi.

Evolution

Subgenus ''H. (Isohoplites)'' has evolved in Early Albian from '' Otohoplites normanniae'' that gave rise to ''H. (I.) steinmanni'', which is the only member of subgenus ''Isohoplites''. From this, subgenus ''Hoplites'' has evolved and gave subsequently rise to '' Anahoplites'' (from ''H. (H.) dentatus'') and ''

Euhoplites ''Euhoplites'' is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod from the Lower Cretaceous, characterized by strongly ribbed, more or less evolute, compressed to inflated shells with flat or concave ribs, typically with a deep narrow groove running down the mi ...

'' (from H. (H.) canavarii).

References

Cretaceous ammonites Ammonites of Europe Ammonites of North America Ammonite genera Albian life Albian genus extinctions Hoplitidae Ammonitida genera {{ammonitina-stub