A marine nautiloid fossil from the Paleozoic era found in the Grand Canyon's Mississippian Redwall Limestone layers.

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A nautiloid fossil found in the Grand Canyon. Nautiloids are a large and diverse group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea that began in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living Nautilus and Allonautilus. Nautiloids flourished during the early Paleozoic era, where they constituted the main predatory animals, and developed an extraordinary diversity of shell shapes and forms. Some 2,500 species of fossil nautiloids are known, but only a handful of species survive to the present day.

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Photo credit: © B.A.E. Inc. / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: ancient, animal, arizona, canyon, cephalopod, cephalopods, desert, era, fossil, fossilized, fossils, grand, historic, history, layer, layers, limestone, marine, mississippian, nautiloid, nautiloids, paleozoic, prehistoric, record, redwall, southwest, usa, west