Goniatite
The goniatites are one of Ammonite S appeared at the beginning of the Dévonien (400 million years ago). They experienced their maximum development with the Carbonifère and the Permien and disappeared at the end of this period, 251 million years ago (Extinction of Permian the).
The goniatites had a characteristic Coquille, from which the rooms were separated by joinings in zigzag. The animal lived in the largest room, and the others, filled of gas, had a hydrostatic role: Like the Ammonite S, the goniatites swam in full water. They had two well developed eyes and of the Tentacule S.
The goniatites are of reduced size, seldom exceeding 15 cm in diameter, and making often less than 5 cm. Their shell is always rolled up in only one plan; its form suggests that the majority were rather badly to swim.
Biotope
The goniatites lived in seas of normal salinity, like the others Céphalopode S. They were more abundant on the continental shelves, with average depths, that with broad or directly close to the coasts. One is unaware of what they were nourished: their fossils in perfect state are rare and the examination of their stomach did not give indisputable results. However the absence of jaw calcified comparable with that of the later Ammonite S excludes a mode from shell or animals with hard carapaces.The goniatites are relatively current in North America, Europe, North Africa and Australasia, in zones which were at the time tropical or subtropical. Several of them are stratigraphic fossil important.
See too
| Random links: | Internal marketing | Armand Keravel | Philippe Ier de Tarente | Route main road 813 | Gložane (Vlasotince) | Daytona_Beach_Hawgs |