Cephalopod (Baculities compressus)

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Baculites is a genus of extinct marine animals. They were
straight-shelled ammonites that were globally distributed during the Late
Cretaceous (100 to 65 million years ago). Because of their shape,
Baculites may have lived in a vertical orientation with the arms hanging
down. Some adults grew up to two meters long, but their fossils are
usually fragmentary. Ammonites like Baculites had a chambered shell, and
controlled their buoyancy by filling the chambers with gas. The walls
separating the chambers are called septa, and form visible lines called
sutures on the outer-shell. The patterns formed by suture lines are often
used as diagnostic characters to identify species. Baculites shells were
very brittle and often broke along the suture lines, as is the case for
this specimen

Polygon counts: Original 403,756; 30,000 before compression
Time: Upper Cretaceous
Locality: Central and Southern Montana
Specimen: P-992

Data scanning, postprocessing, and preparation of this web page by:
Weihow Hsue

Last Updated: 03/21/2008 12:59 PM