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Describing Ammonoid Conchs

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Ammonoid Paleobiology: From anatomy to ecology

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 43))

Abstract

Research always requires the use of a common language and particularly of common technical terms. Thus, the definition of terms is fundamental for any scientific work, and this includes also the definition of species. In this chapter, we do not discuss species concepts but provide a guideline on how to describe ammonoids in a manner that is intelligible to the majority of the fellow cephalopod-workers. Accordingly, we list the most important terms and describe how to quantify and how to properly use them. We stress that the inclusion of morphological details throughout ontogeny as well as information on intraspecific variability can be important. This is essential, because species are the classical unit used in biodiversity and evolutionary studies and hence, a more or less uniform handling of this issue is desirable.

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Acknowledgments

Some of the insights grew in the course of the research projects with the numbers 200021-113956/1, 200020-25029, and 200020-132870 funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF (CK, CN, KDB). We greatly appreciate the constructive reviews of Ottilia Szives (Budapest) and Christian Meister (Geneva).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, University of Zurich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 6, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Klug & Carole Naglik

  2. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Dieter Korn

  3. Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., 10024-5192, New York, USA

    Neil H. Landman

  4. Department of Historical Geology and Paleontology, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, 113-0033, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazushige Tanabe

  5. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Fachgruppe PaläoUmwelt, Universität Erlangen, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Kenneth De Baets

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  1. Christian Klug
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  2. Dieter Korn
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  3. Neil H. Landman
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  4. Kazushige Tanabe
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  5. Kenneth De Baets
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  6. Carole Naglik
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Correspondence to Christian Klug .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Christian Klug

  2. Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions und Biodiversitätsforschung, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

    Dieter Korn

  3. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

    Kenneth De Baets

  4. Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA

    Isabelle Kruta

  5. North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, Raleigh, USA

    Royal H. Mapes

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Klug, C., Korn, D., Landman, N., Tanabe, K., De Baets, K., Naglik, C. (2015). Describing Ammonoid Conchs. In: Klug, C., Korn, D., De Baets, K., Kruta, I., Mapes, R. (eds) Ammonoid Paleobiology: From anatomy to ecology. Topics in Geobiology, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9630-9_1

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