3. A cyclic mode of shell growth and its implications in a Late Cretaceous heteromorph ammonite Polyptychoceras pseudogaultinum (Yokoyama)

概要

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Polyptychoceras, a Cretaceous heteromorph ammonite genus, is characterized by a trombone-like shell called a "hamitoid" shell. In order to clarify the shell-forming mechanism, a large sample, which consists of more than 320 specimens of P. pseudogaultinum (Yokoyama) obtained from the Upper Santonian of Hokkaido, was biometrically analyzed. Besides the shell coiling, cyclic changes of growth pattern are recognized by the analyses of the shell ornamentation, the relative growth rate of shell height, and the distance between septa. Intermittent shell growth, which was also deduced from the ontogenetic stage distribution in the population samples, is probably the cause of such peculiar shell coiling. Also, we carried out some computer simulations to reconstruct hydrostatically the ontogenetic change of the living attitude of P. pseudogaultinum. It is suggested that the rate of absolute shell growth possibly depends on the living attitude of this ammonite in the water column; the shell grows slowly when the shell aperture faces upward, and grows rapidly when the aperture faces in other directions. It is likely that every individual of this ammonite spent most of its life time with an upward-facing aperture.
日本古生物学会の論文
1997-04-30