Dactylioceras: No measured body size data available to draw at scale.
- · Grid units represent actual meters (m); human and animals are drawn to the exact same scale with original silhouette aspect ratios preserved.
- · When a size range is recorded (e.g. 1–1.6m), the lower bound is used for scale comparison.
- · Human silhouette: PhyloPic — NASA · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Dactylioceras
Dactylioceras commune (Dactylioceras · Dactylioceras)
Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Whitby has a legend that Saint Hilda turned snakes into stone, and the coat of arms of Whitby features three ammonites carved with snake heads.
- 💡 People in the Victorian era carved snake heads onto ammonite fossils so that they would sell better.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Dactylioceras commune (genus Dactylioceras) is an ammonite that lived in Early Jurassic seas and is a cephalopod related to squid and octopuses. It is known as a genus found alongside Hildoceras in the shales of the Whitby coast in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Because ammonite shells are coiled like a curled-up snake, people in the United Kingdom called these fossils 'snakestones.'
🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology
Ammonites were cephalopods that lived in Mesozoic seas from about 201–66 million years ago. Along with ammonites, the shales of the Whitby coast also contain fossils of belemnites, bivalves, and large tree trunks.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • Fossil taxon — the IUCN Red List assesses only species living or extinct since 1500
- • paleobiodb.org — basicTaxonInfo
- • wikidata.org — Q23870721
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Dactylioceras 01.jpg
- • earthwise.bgs.ac.uk — Lower–Middle Jurassic sequences between Whitby and Saltwick
- • nhm.ac.uk — snakestones-ammonites-myth-magic-science.html
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.