Also known as Ashil'ta

Where: Dagestan, Russian Federation (42.8° N, 46.7° E: paleocoordinates 35.2° N, 50.5° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Aptian (122.5 - 113.0 Ma)

• Original description states from the "gray sandy Aptian limestone." According to Frau (2023), there is no comprehensive description of the Ashil'ta locality that yielded the type material of Acanthohoplites aschiltaensis. Nevertheless, the Acanthohoplites-bearing beds of Akusha consist of a ~ 25 m-thick interval assigned to the 'Acanthoplites aschiltaensis-Acanthoplites uhligi Zone' (Mordvilko 1962). Most of the taxa from the 'Acanthoplites aschiltaensis-Acanthoplites uhligi Zone' of the Dargi River section derive from a siltstone horizon including fossiliferous phosphatic nodules. Acanthohoplites aschiltaensis co-occurs here with Parahoplites sjogreni Anthula, 1900, Phylloceras (Hypophylloceras) velledae Michelin, 1834, Aconeceras sp., and the problematic Cheloniceras sp. (Bogdanova & Mikhailova 2016). This horizon is of regional significance since it also crops out in the Rubas-chai section, in the vicinity of Khuchni (Bogdanova & Mikhailova 2016: fig. 12). A younger Acanthohoplites-bearing horizon is documented in the upper part of the 'Acanthoplites aschiltaensis-Acanthoplites uhligi Zone' in the Dargi River and Rubas-chai sections. Representatives assigned to Acanthohoplites ex gr. aschiltaensis would be still present in the corresponding horizon but the fauna lacks illustration for further confirmation.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified siliciclastic sediments

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Sjögren

• Repository: Palaeontological Museum of Uppsala, Sweden

Primary reference: C. Frau. 2023. The systematic affinities between the Lower Cretaceous Ammonoidea Protacanthoplites abichi (Anthula, 1900) and Acanthohoplites aschiltaensis (Anthula, 1900). European Journal of Taxonomy 888:137-158 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 232755: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 27.12.2023

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)