baculite

[bak-yuh-lahyt]

noun

1. any ammonite of the genus Baculites, of the Cretaceous Period, having a straight shell with a spiral tip.

Other Word Forms

• baculitic adjective
• baculoid noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of baculite¹

1815–25; < Latin bacul ( um ) walking stick, staff + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

Baculite, bak′ū-līt, n. a genus of fossil shells, allied to the ammonites, having a shell of perfectly straight form, tapering to a point.

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We no longer meet with a single example of the Turrilite, the Baculite, the Hamite, the Scaphite, or the Ammonite.

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The Baculite is the simplest of all the forms of the Ammonitidœ; and all the other forms, however complex, may be regarded as being simply produced by the bending or folding of such a conical septate shell in different ways.

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The Baculite, therefore, corresponds, in the series of the Ammonitidœ, to the Orthoceras in the series of the Nautilidœ.

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But M. Hebert found in this formation at Montereau, near Paris, the Pecten quadricostatus, a well-known Cretaceous species, together with some other fossils common to the Maestricht chalk and to the Baculite limestone of the Cotentin, in Normandy.

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