#nipponites

Strange Symmetries #16: Go Home Heteromorphs You're Drunk

Most ammonites had spiral-coiling shells, but during the Cretaceous a group known as the heteromorphs evolved a much weirder range of forms. Some were straightened, some were hooked, some had helical snail-like shapes, and some even ended up bearing a strange resemblance to paperclips. 

But one of the most bizarre of all was the genus Nipponites, whose ribbed shell looked like a bundle of tangled asymmetrical coils.

Nipponites bacchus lived in what is now Hokkaido, Japan, during the late Cretaceous about 90 million years ago. Around 10cm long (~4"), its shell was less tightly coiled up than its better-known relative Nipponites mirabilis, but these looser whorls were formed in the same way via a series of U-bends in different directions during its growth.

Despite their irregular and ungainly appearance, the unique shape of these ammonites seems to have actually been very hydrodynamically stable. They weren't fast-moving, but they didn't need to be, probably spending most of their time floating suspended in the water column catching small planktonic prey from around themselves.

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My latest splatoon oc for @splatoonpolls tourney!! This is ally the nipponites and shes part of a band called the silurian sirens! (Yes i know my previous oc was also a nipponites there my favourite prehistoric sea creature!)

Also heres what nipponites looks like (below is not my artwork credit to nix illustration)

Nipponites

Nipponites — вимерлий рід гетероморфних амонітів. Черепашки ніппонітів (переважно N. mirabilis) сформовані вигинами U-подібної форми, що призводить до появи одних з найхимерніших панцирів, які можна побачити серед амонітів.

Повний текст на сайті "Вимерлий світ":

Prehistoric animals from the Jurassic Trailer Pteranodon,  Quetzalcoatlus, Velociraptor, Archaeopteryx ,  Nipponites,   Orthoceras,  Diplocaulus & Dimetrodon (thats a guess)

Jurassic! ジュラしっく！

Toei Animation announced a new short anime on Friday titled “Jurassic!” that will debut streaming on YouTube in mid-August. Most of the staff for the anime are comprised of the younger staff at Toei Animation. The anime is also the first in a series of new projects for the studio featuring the younger staff. The Real-Size Koseibutsu Zukan (Real-Size Extinct Creatures Picture Book) book by Ken Tsuchiya is inspiring the anime, and Tsuchiya is serving as the anime’s “extinct creatures supervisor.”

Nipponites

Artwork by Franz Anthony / @franzanth

As suggested by its name, Nipponites are most commonly found in Upper Cretaceous rocks in Japan. It had a bizarrely coiled shell, but how it lived is yet to be known.

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