The Bactritida are a small order of more or less straight-shelled (orthoconic) cephalopods that first appeared during the Emsian stage of the Devonian period with questionable origins in Pragian stage before 409 million years ago, and persisted until Carnian pluvial event in the upper middle Carnian stage of the Triassic period. They are considered ancestors of the ammonoids, as well as of the coleoids.
Armenoceras is a genus of actinocerid nautiloid cephalopods whose fossils ranged from the late Whiterockian Stage in the early Middle Ordovician, through the remainder of the period and on into the Upper Silurian. It is the type genus of the family Armenoceratidae.
Osbornoceras is a genus of Lower Silurian cyrtoconic nautiloid cephalopods known from Ohio and possibly Manitoba, one of five general currently included in the oncocerid family Karoceratidae.
Kionoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod genus included in the orthocerid family Kionoceratidae with scattered worldwide distribution from the Middle Ordovician to the Lower Permian. Kionoceratids are orthocerids with prominent longitudinal ornamentation on their shells, sometimes augmented by secondary transverse ornamentation. Orthocerids are, of course, prehistoric nautiloides with generally straight and elongate shells, mostly with central or subcentral siphuncles.
Shuranoceras is a genus in the extinct oncocerid family Karoceratidae that plied the shallow sea floor from the Early Silurian to the Early Devonian. Shuranoceras is characterized by a smooth, compressed, slowly enlarging orthoconic shellwith a ventral submarginal siphuncle composed of complex segments. Shuranoceras was found in middle Silurian strata in Ferghana, central Asia.
Sactoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod that lived during the Ordovician and Silurian in what would become North America, Europe, and Asia.
Oncoceratidae is a family of nauatiloid cephalopods in the order Oncocerida established by Hyatt, 1884, that range from the Middle Ordovician to the Upper Silurian.
The Phragmoceratidae is a family of extinct nautiloid cephalopods from the Order Discosorida that lived during the latter part of the Silurian.
The Actinoceriatidae are a family of actinocerids named by Saemann in 1853 for those that grew to have large shells with blunt apices and large siphuncles with widely expanded segments and a generally arcuate endosiphucular canal system. Their range is from the upper Middle Ordovician to the Lower Silurian. Actinocerids are generally straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopods with a siphuncle composed of expanded segments, typically with thin connecting rings, in which the internal deposits are penetrated by a system of canals
The Armenoceratidae are a family of early Paleozoic nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Actinocerida.
Oonoceras is an extinct genus of fossil cephalopods included in the nautiloid order Oncocerida and the family Oncoceratidae from the Middle Ordovician to Middle Silurian of North America and Europe, arbitrarily included in the Slender Oncoceratidae.
Mandaloceratidae is a family in the nautiloid cephalopod order Discosorida, from the Middle and Upper(?) Silurian characterized by short, essentially straight shells referred to as breviconic, typically with a faintly exogastric shape produced by the profile of the body chamber.
Endoceratidae is a family of large to very large straight shelled nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Endocerida that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. They include the largest known Paleozoic invertebrates, represented by Endoceras and Cameroceras.
The Barrandeoceratidae is a family of coiled nautiloids included in the Tarphycerida that lived from the Middle Ordovician to the Middle Devonian, characterised by mostly compressed shells with a subcentral siphuncle composed of thin-walled segments that may become secondarily ventral.(Flower and Kummel 1950, Sweet 1964).
Pentameroceras is a straight to slightly exogastric breviconic oncocerid from the middle Silurian of North America and Europe belonging to the Trimeroceratidae.
Poterioceratidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods included in the Oncocerida that lived during the period from the Early Devonian to the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian). Members of the Poterioceratidae are distinguished by a subcircular to compressed exogastric shell that has no hyponomic sinus and a central to subcentral siphuncle composed of subquadrate to nummuloidal segments in which the septal necks are more strongly curved on the upper, or dorsal side. This is opposite from the Karoceratidae in which siphuncle segments are inflated ventrally but straight dorsally. Some poterioceratid genera have actinosiphonate structures or annular deposits within the siphuncle. In others it is empty.
The Nephriticeratidae is a family of early Paleozoic nautilod cephalopods included in the Barrandeocerina, distinguished by mostly cyrtoconic as well as gyroconic, sepenticontic, and sinstrally torticonic shells with large, typically straight necked (orthchoanitic) siphuncles. As for the suborder, connecting rings are thin.
Cyrtogomphoceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods, recognized by its large breviconic shell with a notable endogastric curvature. The shell is fusiform in profile, reaching maximum width at or near the base of body chamber, which narrows toward the aperture. The siphuncle is large and slightly removed from the ventral side, that with the concave longitudinal profile. Siphuncle segments are short, as are chambers; septal necks recurved, connecting rings thick, bullettes at the apical end of the rings swollen. Cameral deposits are lacking.
Tetrameroceras is a genus of short, essentially straight, breviconic, nautiloid cephalopods from the middle and Upper Silurian of Europe and North America included in the oncocerid family Hemiphragmoceraidae.
Danaoceras is a nautiloid cephalopod from the middle Silurian of central Europe included in the oncoceroid family Polyelasmoceratidae. Similar specimens from the middle Devonian of North America may belong.
