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Placenticeras meeki

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Placenticeras meeki
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Fossil shell of Placenticeras meeki on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
Order: Ammonitida
Family: Placenticeratidae
Genus: Placenticeras
Species:
P. meeki
Binomial name
Placenticeras meeki
(Böhm, 1898)

Placenticeras meeki is an ammonite species from the Late Cretaceous. These cephalopods were fast-moving nektonic carnivores. They mainly lived in the American Interior Basin (Western Interior Seaway).

Description

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Shells of this species could reach a diameter of about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). They are discoidal, involute and compressed. Whorls are stout and rounded to diameter of 3 millimeters. The surface of fossils is usually covered by opalized nacre (ammolite).

Etymology

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The name honours American Palaeontologist Fielding Bradford Meek.

References

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