Goniatite BookendsGoniatites have a spiral shell with a distinctive very large outer whorl. The shell can show striking patterns made by the sutures that connect the different body chambers in the shell. They are relatives of squid and octopus and went extinct at the end of the Permian period around 250 million years ago, an animal that lived in a curled shell in the sea. A bit like the Nautilus today and a forerunner of ammonites which lived in Jurassic and later