Tentaculites
Tentaculites Temporal range:
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Tentaculitids from the Devonian of Maryland. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Class: | †Tentaculita |
Order: | †Tentaculitida |
Family: | †Tentaculitidae |
Genus: | †Tentaculites von Schlotheim, 1820 |
Species | |
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Tentaculites is an extinct genus of conical fossils of uncertain affinity, class Tentaculita, although it is not the only member of the class. It is known from Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian deposits[1] both as calcitic shells with a brachiopod-like microstructure[2] and carbonaceous 'linings'.[3][4] The "tentaculites" (i.e. tentaculita) are also referred to as the styliolinids.
Affinity
The taxonomic classification of tentaculitids is uncertain. Some grouped them with
pteropods, but there is no modern support and only superficial similarity.[who?][5] They may also be related to other conical shells of uncertain affinity including cornulitids, Anticalyptraea, microconchids and trypanoporids.[6]
Their shell microstructure has warranted their comparison with the brachiopods and phoronids,[2][7]
and the possible Ediacaran lophophorate Namacalathus.[8]
Morphology
Tentaculitids have ribbed, cone-shaped shells which range in length from 5 to 20 mm. Some species septate; their embryonic shell, which is retained, forms a small, sometimes spherical, chamber.[4]
Ecology
Some species are inferred to have been planktonic.[9]
See also
- Mari Mari Group, fossil formation in the state of Amazonas of northwestern Brazil
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4020-6684-9.
- ^ S2CID 22806221.
- ^ Wood, G.D., Miller, M.A., and Bergstrom, S.M. 2004. Late Devonian (Frasnian) tentaculite organic remains in palynological preparations, Radom−Lublin region, Poland. Memoirs of the Association of Australian Palaeontologists 29: 253–258.
- ^ .
- ^ Ager, 1963, Principles of Palaeontology
- . Retrieved 2014-01-11.
- S2CID 83591938. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
- ^ 1. Zhuravlev, A.Y., Wood, R.A., and Penny, A.M. (2015). Ediacaran skeletal metazoan interpreted as a lophophorate. Proc. R. Soc. B 282, 20151860. Available at: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rspb.2015.1860.
- ^ LARSSON K. (1979). "Silurian tentaculitids from Gotland and Scania". Fossils and Strata. 11: 180.
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tentaculites.
- Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part W - Miscellanea. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, 1962. LCCN 53012913