Abstract
We investigated the relationship between shell morphology and environment among congeneric species within three genera of Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) scaphites from the Fox Hills Formation and part of the underlying Pierre Shale of North America. These species are distributed between two environments: a sandy nearshore environmental and a silty offshore environment below wave base. In two of the genera, Hoploscaphites and an unnamed genus, the species in the sandier environments are relatively more compressed, less umbilicate, and more nodose than those in the silty environments. In the third genus, Discoscaphites, individuals within the same species are also more nodose in sandier environments. These morphological features probably reflect the presumably nektobenthic mode of life of these animals in the shallower, lighter, and more turbulent waters of the nearshore environment. The correlations between shell morphology and environment among these species are similar to those observed at higher taxonomic levels.
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