Kratone

Kratone is a genus of extinct marine mollusks belonging to the class Cephalopoda, more specifically within the subclass Ammonoidea. These cephalopods lived during the Late Paleozoic era, roughly between the Permian and Carboniferous periods, approximately 300 to 250 million years ago. Known primarily from fossil records, Kratone species are characterized by their coiled shells, which exhibit intricate chambered structures that facilitated buoyancy control.

The shells of Kratone are typically planispirally coiled, with a high degree of ornamentation such as ribs, tubercles, or spines, depending on the species. Their shells were composed of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate, and often display complex suture patterns—lines where the chamber walls meet the outer shell—which are useful for taxonomic identification. These cephalopods were predators, preying on smaller marine organisms, and likely played an important role in their marine ecosystems.

Kratone fossils provide valuable insights into the biodiversity and evolutionary history of Paleozoic marine life. Their widespread fossil distribution suggests they inhabited various marine environments, from shallow continental shelves to deeper offshore settings. As with other ammonoids, Kratone served as an important index fossil, helping geologists date the sedimentary layers in which they are found.

The extinction of Kratone coincides with the Permian-Triassic extinction event, the most severe mass extinction in Earth's history. Despite their extinction, Kratone and other ammonoids are studied extensively, contributing to our understanding of paleobiology, paleoecology, and the evolutionary pathways of cephalopods.