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On the origin of ammonite sutures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Juan M. García-Ruiz ,
Antonio Checa  and
Pascual Rivas
Juan M. García-Ruiz
Affiliation:
Instituto Andaluz de Geología Mediterranea C.S.I.C.—Universidad de Granada, Fuentenueva s/n, Granada 18002, Spain
Antonio Checa
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Fuentenueva s/n, Granada 18002, Spain
Pascual Rivas
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Fuentenueva s/n, Granada 18002, Spain
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Abstract

The origin of ammonite sutures is one of the most interesting open problems in paleontology. Present theories of suture formation deal with function rather than morphogenesis. Here we present a study showing that sutures are scale-invariant. In each of ten different ammonite genera, the ontogenetic sequence of the suture can be characterized by the same fractal dimension. We propose a morphogenetic theory for ammonite sutures that is based on the similarity between sutures and the Saffman-Taylor instability in both fractal characters and physical mechanism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , Summer 1990 , pp. 349 - 354
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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