Baculites

genus

Sensitive Classification

Fossils are sensitive in nature and should not be collected unless it is done legally and responsibly. Vertebrate fossils are illegal to collect on public lands.

On the Web

On Wikipedia

Baculites ("walking stick rock") is an extinct genus of cephalopods with a nearly straight shell, included in the heteromorph ammonites. The genus, which lived worldwide throughout most of the Late Cretaceous, was named by Lamarck in 1799. The adult shell of Baculites is generally straight and may be either smooth or with sinuous striae or ribbing that typically slant dorso-ventrally forward. The aperture likewise slopes to the front and has a sinuous margin. The venter is narrowly rounded to acute while the dorsum is more broad. The juvenile shell, found at the apex, is coiled in one or two whorls and described as minute, about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) in diameter. Adult Baculites ranged in size from about 7 centimetres (2.8 in) (Baculites larsoni) up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length. As…