#goniatite

Fossilised Goniatite - Ammonite-like Fossil Creature from Devonian Morocco - Certificated

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Specimen: Goniatite

Age: Devonian

Location: Morocco

Scale cube=1cm: Full sizing please see photo

Goniatite are Ammonoid Cephalopods that form the Order Goniatida, derived from the more primitive Anarcestida during the Middle Devonian some 390 million years ago. Goniatites survived the Late Devonian extinction to flourish in the oceans during the Carboniferous and Permian only to become extinct at the end of the Permian some 139 million years later. The order of Goniatida belongs to the squidlike class, Cephalopoda, and the phylum molluscs, Mollusca.

These marine animals possessed tentacles, just like their modern-day relative the Squid, though unlike the squid Goniatites also possessed an external, coiled shell! This shell was divided into a series of hollow chambers linked by a tube, in life the animal could adjust the gas pressure in these chambers and so move up and down through the water. An open chamber at the front of the shell provided living space for the animal where, if felt threatened, it could release a jet of water propelling itself backwards which would have served as a very quick retreat!