Bassleroceras

Last updated

Bassleroceras
Temporal range: L Ordovician
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: ellesmerocerida
Family: Bassleroceratidae
Genus:Bassleroceras
Ulrich & Foeste, 1936

Bassleroceras is an elongate upwardly curved, exogastric, genus with the venter on the under side more sharply rounded than the dorsum on the upper. The siphuncle is ventral, composed of thick-walled tubular segments in which connection rings thicken in towardly as in both the Ellesmerocerida and primitive Tarphycerida.

Siphuncle

The siphuncle is a strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. Only cephalopods with chambered shells have siphuncles, such as the extinct ammonites and belemnites, and the living nautiluses, cuttlefish, and Spirula. In the case of the cuttlefish, the siphuncle is indistinct and connects all the small chambers of that animal's highly modified shell; in the other cephalopods it is thread-like and passes through small openings in the walls dividing the chambers.

The Ellesmerocerida is an order of primitive cephalopods belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea with a widespread distribution that lived during the Late Cambrian and Ordovician.

The Tarphycerida were the first of the coiled cephalopods, found in marine sediments from the Lower Ordovician to the Middle Devonian. Some, such as Aphetoceras and Estonioceras, are loosely coiled and gyroconic; others, such as Campbelloceras, Tarphyceras, and Trocholites, are tightly coiled, but evolute with all whorls showing. The body chamber of tarphycerids is typically long and tubular, as much as half the length of the containing whorl in most, greater than in the Silurian Ophidioceratidae. The Tarphycerida evolved from the elongated, compressed, exogastric Bassleroceratidae, probably Bassleroceras, around the end of the Gasconadian through forms like Aphetoceras. Close coiling developed rather quickly, and both gyroconic and evolute forms are found in the early middle Canadian.

Bassleroceras is the type genus of the Bassleroceratidae which Furnish and Glenister (1964) included in the Ellesmerocerida, but which Flower (1967) placed in the Tarphycerida. Bassleroceras gave rise to the Tarphycerida (sensu Furnish and Glenister, 1964) by evolving genera with tighter and tighter curvatures until becoming gyroconic, a character of the Estonioceratidae, a family of early tarphycerids.

The Bassleroceratidae is a family of gradually expanding, smooth ellesmerocerids with a slight to moderate exogastric curvature, subcircular to strongly compressed cross section, and ventral orthochaonitc siphuncle. The ventral side is typically more sharply rounded than the dorsal side and septa are close spaced. Connecting rings are thick and slightly expanded into the siphuncle, making the segments slightly concave; characteristic of the Ellesmerocerida.

Rousseau Hayner Flower (1913–1988) was an extremely prolific 20th century paleontologist, known for his eccentric personality.

Bassleroceras is found widespread in North America, e.g. New Mexico and New York, and in W. Australia.

Related Research Articles

Clarkoceras is a genus of breviconic ellesmerocerid cephalopods, one of only two genera known to have crossed from the Late Cambrian, Trempealeauan, into the Early Ordovician, Gasconadian. ; the other being Ectenolites.

The Ellesmeroceratidae constitute a family within the cephalopod order Ellesmerocerida. They lived from the Upper Cambrian to the Lower Ordovician. They are characterized by straight and endogastric shells, often laterally compressed, so the dorso-ventral dimension is slightly greater than the lateral, with close spaced sutures having shallow lateral lobes and a generally large tubular ventro-marginal siphuncle with concave segments and irregularly spaced diaphragms. Connecting rings are thick and layered, externally straight but thickening inwardly with the maximum near the middle of the segment so as to leave concave depressions on internal siphuncle molds. Septal necks are typically orthochoanitic but vary in length from almost absent (achoanitic) to reaching halfway to the previous septum (hemichoanitic) and may even slope inwardly (loxochoanitic).

Litoceras is a trocholitid (Tarphycerida) genus that has been found in the Lower and Middle Ordovician of Newfoundland. Whorls in Litoceras have a broadly rounded cross section with its width greater than its height. Litoceras somewhat resembles the tarphyceratid Pionoceras from the same time, except for the siphuncle being dorsal and in the center.

Curtoceras is a genus in the tarphycerid family Trocholitidae found widespread in the late Early and Middle Ordovician of North America and northern Europe. Curtoceras has a shell that is gradually expanded, with half the fully mature body chamber divergent from the preceding volution. Whorl sections are near equidimentional with the inner margin (dosum) moderately impressed. The surface may be smooth or weakly ribbed. The siphuncle is ventral in the initial chamber and becomes dorsal after one volution. With the exception of the dorsal siphuncle, Curtoceras is somewhat similar to the tarphyceratid Campbelloceras

The Tarphyceratidae are tightly coiled, evolute Tarphycerida with ventral siphuncles. The dorsum is characteristically impressed where the whorl presses against the venter of the previous. The Tarphyceratidae are derived from Bassleroceras or possibly from some member of the Estonioceratidae.

Quebecoceras is an extinct genus from the nautiloid order Ellesmerocerida that lived during the Gasconadian Stage at the beginning of the Early Ordovician.

Cochlioceras is an extinct baltoceratid genus from the lower and middle Ordovician of what are now Europe, the U.S (Vermont), and China, having existed for approximately 14 million years, from about 478 to 464 mya.

Basslerocerida is an order of nautiloid cephalopods from the Ordovician comprising exogastric longiconic cyrtocones, that is no longer in common use.

Rhynchorthoceras is a Middle Ordovician genus characterized by a rapidly expanded, weakly annulate orthocone, like the orthoconic section of Ancistroceras, but with only a curved, cyrtoconic apex instead of juvenile whorls.

Estonioceratidae family of molluscs

The Estonioceratidae are a family of loosely coiled tarphycerids in which the inner side of the whorls, which forms the dorsum, is rounded or flat with no impression, and in which the siphuncle, composed of thick tubular segments, is located ventrally. The Estonioceratidae seem to form a link between the ancestral Bassleroceratidae and the more tightly coiled Tarphyceratidae.

The Nautilitoidea is a superorder within the subclass Nautiloidea, comprising the phylogenetically related Nautilida, Oncocerida, and Tarphycerida.

Ophioceras is a genus of closely coiled tarphycerid nautiloid cephalopods, the sole representatives of the family Ophidioceratidae, characterized by an evolute shell with narrow, subrounded, annulated whorls and a subcentral siphuncle composed of thin connecting rings that show no evidence of layering. The mature body chamber is strongly divergent and is the longest proportionally of any tarphycerid. The aperture has a deep hyponomic sinus and ocular sinuses, and so resembles some lituitids.

Hardmanoceras is a Tarphycerid genus belonging to the Trochilidae from the upper Lower Ordovician to possibly the lower Middle Ordovician, found in Western Australia. Hardmanoceras is like Discoceras but prominently ribbed and with a depressed whorl section. The body, or living, chamber is long, 1 1/8 volutions long. The ultimate portion is slightly divergent, not an uncommon characteristic of tarphycerids.

Ellesmeroceras is the type genus for the Ellesmeroceratidae, a family of primitive nautiloid cephalopods, that is characterized by its small, generally compressed, gradually expanded, orthoconic shell, found in Lower Ordovician marine sediments. The septa are close spaced and the siphuncle is ventral, about 0.2 the diameter of the shell. Septal necks are typically orthochoanitic but may slant inwardly (loxochoanitic) or reach halfway to the previous septum (hemichoanitic). Connecting rings are thick. As common for the Ellesmerocerida, Ellesmeroceras has diaphragms within the siphuncle tube.

Alaskoceras is a genus of lower Ordovician coiled nautiloid cephalopods; the shell moderately expanded, ribbed, with a divergent living chamber; whorl section more broadly rounded ventrally than dorsally; siphuncle marginal at maturity, septal necks short, almost achoanitic; connecting rings thick, layered.

Albertoceras is a genus of Early Ordovician ellesmoeroceratids with a small, slender, orthoconic to slightly endogastric shell; some even tiny. The cross section is strongly compressed so as to make the height proportionally notably greater than the width. The sutures, marking the edges of the septa, have broad, shallow, lateral lobes. The siphuncle, which seems to lack diaphragms, lies close to the venter.

Lawrenceoceras is a genus of moderately curved, gently expanding bassleroceratids from the Lower Ordovician of eastern North America. Septa dividing the chambers are close spaced; sutures straight, transverse; the siphuncle narrow, submarginal.

References

    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.