Hildoceras bifrons

Last updated

Hildoceras bifrons
Temporal range: Toarcian
Hildoceras bifrons Bruguiere derivative.jpg
Hildoceras sublevisoni from Whitby, England
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
Order: Ammonitida
Family: Hildoceratidae
Genus: Hildoceras
Species:
H. bifrons
Binomial name
Hildoceras bifrons
Bruguière, 1789 [1]

Hildoceras bifrons is an extinct species of ammonite in the family Hildoceratidae. It dates from about 175 million years ago in the Early Jurassic when it was both widespread and common. Fossils have been found in North Africa and Europe, including several regions of England.

Contents

Origin of the name

The genus name has been given the name Hildoceras in honour of St. Hilda of Whitby (614-680 AD). Legend has it that this lady was required to found an abbey on the cliffs above Whitby, in the north of England. Finding the site to be infested by snakes (a devilish omen), she prayed to the Lord and the snakes coiled up and were turned to stone. She picked them up and threw them over the cliff, and that is why there are so many ammonite fossils in the rocks below the abbey. [1] The specific name bifrons comes from Bifron, a demon, another name for the Roman god, Janus. [2]

Description

Hildoceras bifrons has a slender, flattened, deeply embossed spiral shell with dense transverse ribbing and a deep groove that runs parallel to the spiral. The umbilicus is convex and has gently sloping sides. The aperture is circular. [3] [4] The fossils come in two sizes, the macroconch (female) ranging in size from 95 to 175 millimetres (3.7 to 6.9 in) in diameter and the microconch (male) which ranges from 24 to 41 millimetres (0.94 to 1.61 in). When the animal was alive, the interior of the shell was divided into chambers which were partly filled with air for buoyancy. The soft parts of the body have not been preserved in the fossils known, but it is probable that Hildoceras bifrons was a predator and caught its prey with tentacles that projected from its aperture. [1]

Distribution

Hildoceras bifrons from Aveyron, France Hildoceras biffrons.2 - Jurasico.JPG
Hildoceras bifrons from Aveyron, France

Fossils of Hildoceras bifrons have been found in North Africa, the Caucasus Mountains, Europe and Eastern England. [5] It is particularly associated with the fossil beds in the Whitby Mudstone Formation, Yorkshire, England. It is so characteristic of the strata in which it is found that it is used as an index fossil to help identify the geological period of the rocks. [1] It dates back to the Toarcian in the Early Jurassic, some 184 to 175 million years ago. [4]

Biology

There has been much debate as to the mode of life and swimming ability of ammonites. Their closest living relatives, the nautiluses, are able to swim because their weight does not exceed their buoyancy, their apertures are suitably orientated and they have sufficient stability to maintain a vertical position. Careful examination of Hildoceras bifrons and some other ammonites makes it seem unlikely that they had a pelagic lifestyle and it is believed that they were primarily benthic animals living on the seabed. [6]

Related Research Articles

Ammonoidea Extinct subclass of cephalopod molluscs

Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, and the last species either vanished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, or shortly after during the Danian epoch of the Paleocene.

Nautilus Family of molluscs

The nautilus is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina.

North York Moors National park in North Yorkshire, England

The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a National Park in 1952, through the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Covering an area of 554 sq mi (1,430 km2), the National Park has a population of 23,380. It is administered by the North York Moors National Park Authority, whose head office is based in Helmsley.

Hilda of Whitby Christian saint

Hilda of Whitby was a Christian saint and the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in 664. An important figure in the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, she was abbess at several monasteries and recognised for the wisdom that drew kings to her for advice.

Goniatite Extinct order of molluscs

Goniatids, informally goniatites, are ammonoid cephalopods that form the order Goniatitida, derived from the more primitive Agoniatitida during the Middle Devonian some 390 million years ago. Goniatites (goniatitids) survived the Late Devonian extinction to flourish during the Carboniferous and Permian only to become extinct at the end of the Permian some 139 million years later.

Belemnoidea Extinct group of squid-like animals

Belemnoids are an extinct group of marine cephalopod, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish. Like them, the belemnoids possessed an ink sac, but, unlike the squid, they possessed ten arms of roughly equal length, and no tentacles. The name "belemnoid" comes from the Greek word βέλεμνον, belemnon meaning "a dart or arrow" and the Greek word είδος, eidos meaning "form".

<i>Dactylioceras</i> Genus of molluscs (fossil)

Dactylioceras was a widespread genus of ammonites from the Lower Jurassic period, approximately 180 million years ago (mya).

Sandsend Ness Alum quarrying site in North Yorkshire, England

Sandsend Ness is an old alum quarrying site close to Whitby in North Yorkshire, England.

The Toarcian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, an age and stage in the Early or Lower Jurassic. It spans the time between 182.7 Ma and 174.1 Ma. It follows the Pliensbachian and is followed by the Aalenian.

<i>Temnodontosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Temnodontosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the Early Jurassic period. They lived between 200 and 175 million years ago (Hettangian-Toarcian) in what is now Europe and Chile. They lived in the deeper areas of the open ocean. University of Bristol paleontologist Jeremy Martin described the genus Temnodontosaurus as "one of the most ecologically disparate genera of ichthyosaurs".

<i>Rhomaleosaurus</i> Genus of rhomaleosaurid plesiosaur from the Early Jurassic period

Rhomaleosaurus is an extinct genus of Early Jurassic rhomaleosaurid pliosauroid known from Northamptonshire and from Yorkshire of the United Kingdom. It was first named by Harry Seeley in 1874 and the type species is Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni. It was one of the earliest large marine reptile predators which hunted in the seas of Mesozoic era. Its length was about 7 m (23 ft) long. Like other pliosaurs, Rhomaleosaurus fed on ichthyosaurs, ammonites and other plesiosaurs.

<i>Nannolytoceras</i> Genus of molluscs (fossil)

Nannolytoceras is an extinct genus of lytoceratid ammonite, family Lytoceratidae, with a stratigraphic range extending from the Bajocian age to Bathonian age.

Black Ven

Black Ven is a cliff in Dorset, England between the towns of Charmouth and Lyme Regis. The cliffs reach a height of 130 metres (430 ft). It is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Nearby is an undercliff with an ammonite pavement. The area is popular with tourists due to a number of fossils being found in the area.

<i>Lytoceras cornucopia</i> Species of mollusc (fossil)

Lytoceras cornucopia is an ammonite species belonging to the family Lytoceratidae. These cephalopods were fast-moving nektonic carnivores. They lived in the Jurassic period.

<i>Lytoceras fimbriatum</i> Species of mollusc (fossil)

Lytoceras fimbriatum is an ammonite species belonging to the family Lytoceratidae. These cephalopods were fast-moving nektonic carnivores. They lived in the Jurassic period.

<i>Harpoceras</i> Genus of molluscs (fossil)

Harpoceras is an extinct genus of ammonite belonging to the family Hildoceratidae. These cephalopods existed in the Jurassic period, during the Toarcian age from the Falciferum zone to the Commune subzone of the Bifrons zone. They were fast-moving nektonic carnivores.

<i>Cleviceras</i> Genus of molluscs (fossil)

Cleviceras is an extinct genus of cephalopod belonging to the family Hildoceratidae. These cephalopods existed in the Jurassic period, during Toarcian and possibly even uppermost Pliensbachian age. Sometimes, it is considered to be a synonym of Eleganticeras.

Saltwick Bay Bay in North Yorkshire, England

Saltwick Bay is a north-east facing bay approximately one mile (1.6 km) to the east of Whitby, on the east coast of North Yorkshire, England. The bay contains the Saltwick Nab alum quarries, listed under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The bay is part of the Saltwick Formation and known for its collections of fossils. The SS Rohilla hospital ship sank in the bay in 1914, and the fishing trawler Admiral Van Tromp was shipwrecked there in 1976. The bay is accessible through Whitby Holiday Park.

Parahildaites is genus of ammonites that lived during the lower Toarcian stage of early Jurassic, during Bifrons zone. It differs from Hildaites and Hildoceras by having smooth shell after reaching 4 cm in diameter. There is no spiral groove and on early whorls, there can be sigmoidal ribs or striae. Strong keel is bordered by flat areas or slight sulci. Its fossils were found in Saudi Arabia and Madagascar.

<i>Mercaticeras</i> Genus of molluscs (fossil)

Mercaticeras is an extinct genus of ammonites belonging to the family Hildoceratidae.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Percival, Lindsay (2010). "Hildoceras bifrons". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  2. Mathers, S. L. MacGregor; Crowley, Aleister (1904). The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King. Red Wheel. ISBN   0-87728-847-X.
  3. UKAFH. "Hildoceras bifrons". World of Fossils. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
  4. 1 2 "Hildoceras bifrons (Bruguière 1789)". Ammonites (in French). 2012-04-08. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
  5. "Paleobiology Database - Hildoceras bifrons" . Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  6. Ebel, Klaus (1990). "Swimming abilities of ammonites and limitations". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 64 (1–2): 25–37. doi:10.1007/BF02985919.