Description
Beudanticeras daintreei (Daintree’s Beudant Horn) is an extinct marine cephalopod from Australia’s Cretaceous inland seas. This species is dated to approximately 100–113 million years ago (Cretaceous) and is known from the Allaru Formation at Currane Station, Ilfracombe, Central West Queensland, as well as Bathurst Island in the Tiwi Islands of the Northern Territory. The species represents a nektonic ammonite that inhabited the warm shallow waters of the Eromanga Sea system.
Originally described in 1872 by Robert Etheridge as Ammonites daintreei, the species was based on fossil shell material discovered near Hughenden, Queensland. Etheridge named the species in honour of geologist and photographer Richard Daintree, whose name is also associated with the Daintree River and Daintree Rainforest of northern Queensland. The genus name Beudanticeras is thought to reference French geologist François Sulpice Beudant.
The taxonomic history of Beudanticeras daintreei has changed several times since its original description. In 1892 Robert Etheridge Jr reassigned the species to the ammonite genus Haploceras. In 1921 Guido Bonarelli and Juan José Nágera transferred the species into the genus Beudanticeras, where it remains today. Dr Frederick W Whitehouse later established the separate genus Boliteceras in 1928, arguing that the fossils possessed distinctive features that separated them from other Beudanticeras species. However, later research by Dr Alberto C Riccardi and Francisco A Medina in 2002 concluded that these differences were insufficient to justify a separate genus and Boliteceras was subsequently synonymised with Beudanticeras.
Beudanticeras daintreei belonged to the Desmoceratidae, a family of ammonites that first appeared during the Early Cretaceous and persisted until the Cretaceous–Palaeogene Extinction Event approximately 66 million years ago. Like other ammonites, the species possessed a chambered shell used to regulate buoyancy while swimming through ancient marine environments.
Each specimen is carefully prepared and represents a unique fossil with natural variation in preservation and completeness.
Key features
- Authentic fossil specimen
- Taxon: Beudanticeras daintreei (ammonite, Mollusca, Cephalopoda)
- Age: 100–113 million years (Cretaceous)
- Origin: Allaru Formation, Eromanga Sea system, Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia
- Museum-prepared specimen
- Natural variation in preservation
Note
As a natural fossil, variations in colour, texture and completeness are expected and add to the uniqueness of each specimen. All fossils sold by the Museum are common and widely represented and are not of scientific research value.
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