Rudists Temporal range:
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Rudist bivalves from the Cretaceous of the Oman Mountains, United Arab Emirates; scale bar is 10 mm | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Bivalvia |
Infraclass: | Heteroconchia |
Subterclass: | Euheterodonta |
Superorder: | Imparidentia |
Order: | †Hippuritida |
Families | |
See text |
Rudists are a group of extinct box-, tube- or ring-shaped marine heterodont bivalves belonging to the order Hippuritida that arose during the Late Jurassic and became so diverse during the Cretaceous that they were major reef-building organisms in the Tethys Ocean, until their complete extinction at the close of the Cretaceous.