Turrilites is a helically coiled ammonoid cephalopod from the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian

Cenomanian

The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...

 and Turonian

Turonian

The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...

); generally included in the Ancyloceratina

Ancyloceratina

The Ancyloceratina were a diverse suborder of ammonite most closely related to the ammonites of order Lytoceratina. They evolved during the Late Jurassic but were not very common until the Cretaceous period, when they rapidly diversified and become one of the most distinctive components of...

. Previously (Arkell, 1957) it was included in the ammonoid suborder, Lytoceratina

Lytoceratina

Lytoceratina is a suborder of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonites that produced loosely coiled, evolute and gyroconic shells in which the sutural element are said to have complex moss-like endings.-Morphologic characteristics:...

.

The shell of Turrilites is tightly wound in a high trochospiral, with an acute angle at the apex. Ribs are weak to strong and may have 3 or 4 rows of equal numbers of tubercles. Thought to be derived from Mariella

Mariella

Mariella is an ammonoid genus, named by Nowak from the upper Albian and Cenomanian stages of the mid Cretaceous, included in the Turrilitidae. Its type is Turrilites bergeri-References:*...

. Includes three subgenera.

T (Turrilites) has weak ribs and strong tubercles. T (Euturrilites) has strong ribs, commonly depressed in middle, especially on early whorls, and no tubercles. T (Mesoturrilites) has almost no ribs and clavate tubercles that tend to form spiral ridges.