US High Plains and Rocky Mountains (ID, MT, ND, SD, WY, CO) Search this
Object Type:
Education and Outreach collections
Collecting Locality:
North America, United States, Montana, Valley County
Description:
This object is part of the Education and Outreach collection, some of which are in the Q?rius science education center and available to see.
Geologic Age:
Mesozoic - Cretaceous - Upper/Late - Campanian
Notes:
This specimen is a Baculite. Baculites is an extinct genus of marine mollusk that lived during most of the Late Cretaceous (100.5 to 66 million years ago). Though their shells grew in an almost straight line, they are similar to other ammonite shells, which are chambered with each chamber divided by thin walls (septa). The animal lives only in the largest chamber. As the animal grew, new chambers were created and septa were secreted to partition off the old chamber. Baculites were able to regulate their buoyancy using a siphuncle (living tube of tissue) connected to the empty chambers to control gas content.