''Macroscaphites'' is an extinct cephalopod genus included in the

Ammonoidea 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 during the

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

and

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

stages of the Early Cretaceous (118 - 110 million years ago). Its fossils have been found throughout most of Europe and North Africa. ''Macroscaphites'' is known to have reached a length of about . The shell is in two basic parts, an early planispirally coiled evolute section followed by a more or less straight section that turns back on itself in a hook. On the basis of studies conducted on the shape of the shell (which take into account the specific weight of the live animal and respective position of the centers of gravity and buoyancy) paleontologists have concluded that this animal lived with the aperture directed toward the surface of the water; the coiled portion upward and the U-shaped-hook directed towards the ocean floor.

List of species

* ''Macroscaphites juani'' (Puzos 1832); Cuba * ''Macroscaphites soaresi'' (Da Silva 1962); Mozambique * ''Macroscaphites striasulcatus'' * ''Macroscaphites tirolensis'' (Uhlig, 1887); South Tyrol, Italy

Fossil locations

Fossils of ''Macroscaphites'' have been found in:''Macroscaphites''
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Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org ;Eurasia * Bulgaria * Luckovska Formation, the Czech Republic * France * Georgia * Italy * Serbia and Montenegro * Forcall Formation, Spain ;Laurentia * Mexico ;Africa * Egypt * Mozambique * Makatini Formation, South Africa ;South America * García Formation, Venezuela

References

Bibliography

* William James Kennedy, Herbert Christian Klinger, Mikheil V. Kakabadze, « Macroscaphites Meek, 1876, a heteromorph ammonite from the Lower Aptian of southern Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal », '' African Natural History'', vol.5, p. 37-41. * A. Cantu-Chapa, « Présence de Macroscaphites, Ammonite du Crétacé inférieur de Oaxaca (sud du Mexique) », '' Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas'', vol.15, n°1 (1998), p. 106-108. * G. Delanoy, J. A. Moreno-Bedmar, J.J. Ruiz and D. Tolós Lládser. 2013. Xerticeras gen. nov., a new genus of micromorphic heteromorph ammonite (Ancyloceratina, Ancyloceratidae)from the lower Aptian of Spain. Carnets de Géologie otebooks on GeologyCG2013_A02:89-103 * O. Renz. 1982. The Cretaceous ammonites of Venezuela 1-132 {{Taxonbar, from=Q3061995 Cretaceous ammonites Barremian genus first appearances Aptian life Albian life Cenomanian life Turonian genus extinctions Ammonites of Africa Cretaceous animals of Africa Fossils of Egypt Fossils of Mozambique Fossils of South Africa Cretaceous ammonites of Europe Fossils of the Czech Republic Fossils of France Fossils of Georgia (country) Fossils of Italy Fossils of Serbia Fossils of Spain Cretaceous ammonites of North America Fossils of Mexico Ammonites of South America Cretaceous animals of South America Fossils of Venezuela Fossil taxa described in 1876