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Tentaculites
An elongate, almost needle-shaped calcareous shell, straight, closed and pointed at one end. The exterior of the shell displays a decoration of ribbed rings. Exclusively marine orgasms, tentaculitids are regardedas benthonic forms, meaning ones living on the seabed in shallow waters.
Tentaculitids are a class with a very uncertain taxonomic position; they have been attributed to a variety of phyla, but are generally regarded as a type of Mollusca because of their supposed similarities with the shells of certain modern Opistobranchia. Recently, however, studies of examples retaining their soft parts have shown that certain tentaculitids had an organization similar to that of mollusc Cephalopoda. In some Silurian and Devonian rocks the remain of tentaculitids are so abundant that they represent one of the main constituent elements.
copyright 1986 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A, Milan
Published by Simon&Schuster, Inc
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