''Puzosia'' is a genus of desmoceratid

ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...

s, and the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

for the Puzosiinae, which lived during the middle part of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, from early

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

(125.5 to 70.6 Ma).''Puzosia''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org Sepkoski defines the range from Albian to Santonian.Sepkoski, Jac
Sepkoski's Online Genus Database – Cephalopoda
/ref> The generic name comes from the

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also

* * * Old Serbian (disambiguat ...

words "Puž" (snail) and "oce/ose" (axis), gaining its name from the shell's snail-like appearance.

Subgenera and species

Puzosia Bhimaites species Burmese amber PNAS Fig2 A

* '' Puzosia (Anapuzosia)'' Matsumoto 1954 * '' Puzosia (Bhimaites)'' Matsumoto 1954 ** ''Puzosia (Bhimaites) bhima'' Stoliczka 1865 * '' Puzosia (Puzosia)'' Bayle 1878 ** ''Puzosia (Puzosia) mayoriana'' d'Orbigny 1841 ** ''Puzosia (Puzosia) planulatus'' Sowerby 1827 ** ''Puzosia alaskana'' Imlay 1960 ** ''Puzosia bistricta'' White 1887 ** ''Puzosia brasiliana'' Maury 1936 ** ''Puzosia crebrisulcata'' Kossmat 1898 ** ''Puzosia dilleri'' Anderson 1902 ** ''Puzosia garajauana'' Maury 1936 ** ''Puzosia lata'' Seitz 1931 ** ''Puzosia longmani'' Whitehouse 1926 ** ''Puzosia lytoceroides'' Haas 1952 ** ''Puzosia media'' Seitz 1931 ** ''Puzosia quenstedti'' Parona and Bonarelli 1897 ** ''Puzosia rosarica'' Maury 1936 ** ''Puzosia skidegatensis'' McLearn 1972

Description

The shell of ''Puzosia'' is basically discoidal, evolute to subinvolute, with a wide umbiicaus. Sides bear close spaced sinuous ribs, periodically interrupted by narrow sinuous constrictions, about six per whorl. Whorl section is somewhat compressed, higher than wide, with slightly convex sides and rounded venter. The suture is complexly ammonitic.

Distribution

Fossils of species within this genus have been found in the

sediments of Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia ( Tolima), Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, the United Kingdom, United States. In 2019, a '' Puzosia (Bhimaites)'' shell was found fossilized in a 99 million-year-old chunk of

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...

from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, marking the first known discovery of an ammonite preserved in amber. The ammonite's shell was presumably picked up and preserved after the resin fell off a tree and tumbled across the seashore.

Subgenera and species

Description

Distribution

References

Further reading