Titanites

Titanites
Temporal range: Tithonian
Titanites giganteus – Jurassic from Dorset England, c. 147 Ma, at the Natural History Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Cephalopoda
Subclass:
Ammonoidea
Family:
Dorsoplanitidae
Genus:
Titanites

S.S. Buckman 1921
Species
  • T. anguiformis Wimbledon and Cope, 1978
  • T. chilensis Biro-Bagoczky, 1976
  • T. cingulatus (de Haan, 1825)
  • T. giganteus (Sowerby, 1818)

Titanites is an extinct ammonite cephalopod genus within the family Dorsoplanitidae, that lived during the late Tithonian of the Late Jurassic. Its fossils have been found in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Description

A pair of Titanites giganteus fossils at Wollaton Hall

Species of the genus Titanites can reach large sizes, with a diameter over 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) for Titanites giganteus and 90 centimetres (3.0 ft) for T. anguiformis. Much larger species, Titanites occidentalis with estimated diameter about 137 centimetres (4.49 ft) is reassigned to genus Corbinites. They were fast-moving nektonic carnivores.

References

  1. 1 2 Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "Sepkoski's Online Genus Database". Retrieved 2014-05-28. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ↑ Wimbledon, W. A.; Cope, J. C. W. (1978). "The ammonite faunas of the English Portland Beds and the zones of the Portlandian Stage". Journal of the Geological Society. 135 (2): 183–190. doi:10.1144/gsjgs.135.2.0183. ISSN 0016-7649.
  3. ↑ Poulton, Terence P. (2023). "Corbinites (Subfamily Lithacoceratinae), a new genus for the giant western Canadian Late Kimmeridgian or Tithonian (Late Jurassic) ammonite Titanites occidentalis Frebold". Volumina Jurassica. 21: 27–38. ISSN 1731-3708.