Euciphoceras regale
Euciphoceras regale
View age-specific evidence and explanation
| Age | Recorded Occurrences | Localities | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ypresian | 1 | 1 | Not yet established |
These counts describe published LBPS Occurrence records with directly assigned, unambiguous geological-unit mappings—not specimen abundance. Records at restricted Localities and ambiguous or unsupported ages are excluded. Species-level age labels are not used as proof of an age-specific Occurrence.
Specimen-based rarity requires comparable, correctly identified physical fossils, geological provenance and publication permissions. It does not estimate your chance of finding a fossil or collecting access.
Quick Identification
Look for: a very large, tightly involute nautilus with broad flattened flanks, a broad flattened to gently rounded venter and a robust subquadrate or trapezoidal whorl section.
Identification Examples
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Summary
Euciphoceras regale was one of the largest chambered cephalopods in the London Clay sea. Its strongly coiled shell contained a series of buoyancy chambers, allowing the animal to remain suspended in the water and move by jet propulsion while the soft body occupied the final chamber.
As with living nautiloids, it was probably an opportunistic predator and scavenger feeding on crustaceans and other small marine animals as well as carrion. Large individuals approaching the size of a dinner plate would have been striking members of the early Eocene marine community.
Diagnostic Features
- Shell is strongly involute, leaving only a very small umbilical region.
- Whorls are broad and robust with comparatively flattened flanks.
- Venter is broad rather than narrowly peaked.
- Whorl section is characteristically subquadrate to trapezoidal.
- Adult shell reaches a much larger diameter than most other London Clay molluscs.
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