Parapuzosia seppenradensis
| Parapuzosia seppenradensis | ||||||||||||
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Parapuzosia seppenradensis in the LWL Museum of Natural History |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper chalk | ||||||||||||
| approx. 72 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Parapuzosia seppenradensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Landois , 1895) | ||||||||||||
Parapuzosia seppenradensis is an ammonite from the Upper Cretaceous of northern Germany and lived in the early Campanium about 72 million years ago. The species is the largest known ammonite in the history of the earth .
The case of the second, larger specimen of this species found as a stone core , i.e. without the lime shell, measures 174.2 centimeters in diameter and weighs around 3.5 tons. It was discovered on February 22, 1895 in a quarry in the southern Münsterland near Seppenrade (Coesfeld district). This find was scientifically described as Pachydiscus seppenradensis by the Münsterland zoology professor Hermann Landois (1835–1905) in the year of its discovery ; Nowak placed the species in the genus Parapuzosia in 1913 . The first found fossil copy of parapuzosia seppenradensis with a maximum diameter of 136.2 centimeters was found in 1887 in the same quarry.
The original can be seen in the foyer of the LWL Museum für Naturkunde in Münster and was awarded the title “ Fossil of the Year ” for the first time by the Palaeontological Society in 2008 . Copies of the fossil are exhibited in Seppenrade as well as in many museums around the world; so also in the Geological-Paleontological Museum Hamburg .
literature
- William James Kennedy, Ulrich Kaplan: Parapuzosia (Parapuzosia) seppenradensis (LANDOIS) and the ammonite fauna of the Dülmen layers, lower Unter-Campan, Westphalia (= geology and palaeontology in Westphalia. H. 33). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-924590-44-3 .
further reading
- Hermann Landois : The giant ammonites of Seppenrade, Pachydiscus ZITTEL seppenradensis II. Landois. In: Annual report of the zoological section of the Westphalian Provincial Association for Science and Art. Vol. 23, 1895, ZDB -ID 513568-0 , pp. 99-108, online (PDF; 2.63 MB) .
