Ammonoids are extinct spiral shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids. The earliest ammonoids appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing during or soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. They are often called ammonites, which is most frequently used for members of the order Ammonitida, the only living group of ammonoids from the Jurassic up until their extinction.
A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral or whorled growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the ammonites.
A varix is an anatomical feature of the shell of certain sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs. Gastropods whose shells have varices are primarily families and species within the taxonomic groups Littorinimorpha and Neogastropoda.
A protoconch is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called "nucleus". The protoconch may sometimes consist of several whorls, but when this is the case, the whorls show no growth lines.
The gastropod shell is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium storage. Some gastropods appear shell-less (slugs) but may have a remnant within the mantle, or in some cases the shell is reduced such that the body cannot be retracted within it (semi-slug). Some snails also possess an operculum that seals the opening of the shell, known as the aperture, which provides further protection. The study of mollusc shells is known as conchology. The biological study of gastropods, and other molluscs in general, is malacology. Shell morphology terms vary by species group.
Alocolytoceras is a lytoceratid ammonite with whorls that pass during growth from round to oval, rounded-quadrate, or compressed; with about 19 deep constrictions per whorl, with as many as 21 sharp ribs in between. The shell is evolute. All whorls are visible from either side.
Lytoceratina is a suborder of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonites that produced loosely coiled, evolute and gyroconic shells in which the sutural element are said to have complex moss-like endings.
Ammonitina comprises a diverse suborder of ammonite cephalopods that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic Era. They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods.
Parastrenoceras is an extinct genus from the ammonoid cephalopod order Ammonitida, included in the family Spiroceratidae that lived during the Bajocian stage of the Middle Jurassic.
Psiloceratoidea is a superfamily of Early Jurassic ammonoid cephalopods proposed by Hyatt in 1867, assigned to the order Ammonitida. They were very successful during Hettangian and Sinemurian. Last of them, family Cymbitidae and genera Hypoxynoticeras and Radstockiceras survived into Early Pliensbachian.
Macrocephalites is a genus of the stephanoceratoid ammonite family Macrocephalitidae, diagnostic of the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic. Three subgenera, Dolikephalites, Kamptokephalites, and Pleurocephalites are recognized in addition to Macrocephalites itself, with Indocephalites tentatively included as the fourth.
Lytoceratidae is a taxonomic family of ammonoid cephalopods belonging to the suborder Lytoceratina, characterized by very evolute shells that generally enlarge rapidly, having whorls in contact but mostly overlapping very sightly, or not at all.
Lytoceratinae is a subfamily of ammonoid cephalopods that make up part of the family Lytoceratidae.
Schlotheimia is a genus of extinct cephalopods belonging to the subclass Ammonoidea that lived during the Hettangian stage at the beginning of the Early Jurassic.
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.
Hammatoceras is a genus of ammonites belonging to the family Hammatoceratidae which lived during the Toarcian stage of the Early/Lower Jurassic between about 184 and 175 million year ago.
Streptocyclammina is a genus of benthic forams with a flattened test from the Jurassic. The test usually starts off streptospiral hence the name, and becomes planispiral in the mature stage. Chambers are numerous per whorl, whorls become rapidly larger in peneropline fashion. Sutures between whorls are slightly indented, the periphery rounded. The wall is finely agglutinated, externally imperorate, internally with massive septa perforated by numerous apertures.
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.
Peronoceras is genus of ammonite that lived during the middle Toarcian stage of early Jurassic. Members of this genus existed only in Fibulatum Subzone of Bifrons Zone. Their fossils were found in Europe, northern Africa, Asia, North America and South America.
Hildoceratinae is an extinct subfamily of cephalopods belonging to the family Hildoceratidae. Ammonites of this subfamily had shells with elliptical or quadrate whorl section with keel or tricarinate, bisulcate venter. Ribs were variable, from falcate to strongly angled and from fine to strong. They can be interrupted by spiral groove in midlateral part of the shell. While some species can be smooth, strongly ribbed ones can have tubercules. Microconchs have short lapplets that is in its shape similar to the shape of growth lines in spiral midlateral groove.
