Aturoidea ziczac
Aturoidea ziczac
Summary
Aturoidea ziczac was a chambered cephalopod that swam through the warm London Clay sea. Its coiled shell contained a series of gas-regulated chambers that controlled buoyancy, while the living animal occupied the final body chamber and moved by jet propulsion.
Its exact diet is not preserved, but comparison with living nautiloids suggests that it was probably an opportunistic predator and scavenger taking small crustaceans and other marine animals. The strongly sinuous chamber sutures make it one of the most distinctive members of the London Clay nautiloid fauna.
Quick Identification
Look for: a relatively small, tightly coiled nautilus with a compressed shell and conspicuously sinuous or zig-zag chamber sutures, unlike the simpler sutures of most other London Clay nautiloids.
Diagnostic Features
- Shell is planispirally coiled and divided internally into repeated buoyancy chambers.
- Overall shell is comparatively small and compressed rather than broad and globose.
- Whorls overlap strongly, producing a tightly coiled appearance.
- Septal sutures are strongly sinuous or zig-zag across the flank.
- Internal moulds can preserve the distinctive chamber and suture pattern even after the original shell dissolves.
Fossil Details
Similar Species
Recorded Fossil Sites
London Clay Formation
Synonyms & Previous Names
References
- Edwards, F. E. (1849). A monograph of the Eocene Mollusca, or descriptions of shells from the older Tertiaries of England. Part I. Cephalopoda. Palaeontographical Society Monograph, 2, 1–56. Palaeontographical Society, London View reference
- Hewitt, R. A. (2002). A review of the Early Eocene nautiloids of the London Clay Formation (upper division C to lowest division E) of south-east England, with particular reference to concretionary horizons and faunules in the offshore facies strata at Southend-on-Sea, Essex and in the adjacent cliffs of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. Tertiary Research, 21(1–4), 39–50 View reference