Brevicoceras

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Brevicoceras
Temporal range: Middle Devonian
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: Oncocerida
Family: Brevicoceratidae
Genus: Brevicoceras
Flower, 1938

Brevicoceras is an extinct nautiloid genus from the order Oncocerida [1] with wide distribution in the Middle Devonian in Eastern North America, Russia and Morocco. [2] Nautiloids form a broad group of shelled cephalopods that were once diverse and numerous but are now represented by only a handful of species in two genera.

Contents

Taxonomy

Brevicoceras was named by Flower in 1938. [3] and is the type genus for the Brevicoceratidae.

Morphology

Brevicoceras produced short, breviconic, shells in which the ventral side of the phragmocone, or chambered part, is longitudinally convex in profile and the opposite dorsal side concave, resulting in their being exograstric - i.e. upwardly curved. The shell reaches its maximum width near the front of the phragmocone or rear of the living chamber. From there it narrows somewhat toward the transverse and slightly contracted aperture [3] In section the shell is slightly broader that high. The dorsal side is also somewhat flattened while the ventral or siphuncular side is more narrowly rounded. Septa are shallow and evenly curved; sutures are with broad shallow dorsal and ventral lobes that diverge to the rear and lateral saddles that diverge forward. [2] The siphuncle located close to the ventral margin is slender with short expanded segments that give it a nummuloidal or beaded appearance, and contains irregular blade-like actinosiphonate deposits. [3] The aperture has a pair a ventro-lateral salients, or projections, and a narrow mid ventral hyponomic sinus confirming the siphuncle is ventral.

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Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living Nautilus and Allonautilus. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded species. They flourished during the early Paleozoic era, when they constituted the main predatory animals. Early in their evolution, nautiloids developed an extraordinary diversity of shell shapes, including coiled morphologies and giant straight-shelled forms (orthocones). Only a handful of rare coiled species, the nautiluses, survive to the present day.

Homaloceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod from the Middle Devonian with a strongly curved shell, included in the nautilid family Centroceratidae.

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.

Jovellania is a genus of extinct prehistoric nautiloids from the order Oncocerida known from the Lower Devonian of Europe. Nautiloids form a broad group of shelled cephalopods that were once diverse and numerous but are now represented by only a handful of species in two genera.

Endolobus is an extinct genus from the nautiloid order, Nautilida. Nautiloids are a subclass of shelled cephalopods that were once diverse and numerous but are now represented by only a handful of species, including Nautilus. Endolubus is included in the family Koninckioceratidae which is part of the superfamily Tainoceratoidea.

Neocycloceras is an extinct genus of nautiloid included in the Pseudorthocerida that lived during the Late Devonian and Mississippian. Neoclycloceras is characterized by a slender, generally circular shell with slightly oblique, sinuous surficial annulations. Its sutures have dorsal and ventral saddles and lateral lobes and become more oblique with age. Saddles point forward, lobes to the rear. Dorsal saddles are broad and low but the ventral ones are high and conspicuous. The siphuncle is located between the center and venter and is nummuloidal, composed of rounded expanded segments, the inside of which contains a continuous laminar lining that is thickest in the middle of the segments and thinnest at the septal necks. Neocycloceras has been found in Pennsylvania in North America and in Morocco in north Africa.

Valhallites is an extinct genus in the nautiloid order Nautilida which includes the living Nautilus found in the tropical western Pacifiic. Valhalites belongs to the Koninckioceratidae, a family in the Tainoceratoidea, a nautilid superfamily.

Streptoceras is a genus in the extinct oncocerid family Acleistoceratidae that plied the shallow sea floor from the Middle Silurian to the Middle Devonian. Streptoceras is characterized by a shell that is large but short in proportion (breviconic) with the ventral profile convex and dorsal profile concave in the posterior part, convex over the body chamber, then concave toward the front, like Amphycertoceras, but with a triangular shaped aperture. Streptoceras is found in the Middle Silurian of North America, in Ontario.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phragmoceratidae</span> Extinct family of molluscs

The Phragmoceratidae is a family of extinct nautiloid cephalopods from the Order Discosorida that lived during the latter part of the Silurian.

The Centroceratidae is the ancestral family of the Trigonoceratoidea and of the equivalent Centroceratina; extinct shelled cephalopods belonging to the order Nautilida

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.

The Naedyceras group comprises three similar and closely related openly coiled, gyroconic, genera within oncocerid family, Brevicoceratidae: Naedyceras, Gonionaedyceras, and Gyronaedyceras.

Conostichoceras is a genus of exogastric, breviconic oncocerids included in the family Nothoceratidae, known from the Middle Devonian of central Europe and Upper Devonian of Australia. It probably lived on and swum above the sea floor.

Pentameroceras is a straight to slightly exogastric breviconic oncocerid from the middle Silurian of North America and Europe belonging to the Trimeroceratidae.


Blakeoceras is a nautiloid cephalopod from the Oncocerida family Nothoceratidae with a curved shell that lived in shallow seas from the Silurian to the Middle Devonian in what has become Europe.

Simardoceras is a genus in the discosorid family Westonoceratidae from the Middle Ordovician of Quebec.

Valcouroceras is the type genus for the Valcouroceratidae, a family in the nautiloid order Oncocerida named by Rousseau Flower, 1943, named for Valcour Island in Lake Champlain, between New York state and Vermont, where it was first discovered.

Aletoceras is a genus of Oncocerida nautiloids from the middle Devonian of North America included in the family Brevicoceratidae.

References

  1. Flower, R.H & Kummel, B 1950, A Classification of the Nautiloidea, Journal of Paleontology 24(3) Sept 1950
  2. 1 2 Kroger, B. 2008. Nautiloids Before and During the Origin of Ammonoids. Special Papers in Palaeontology 79, The Palaeontological Association, London.
  3. 1 2 3 Sweet, W. C. 1964. Nautiloidea -Oncocerida. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part K, Teichert & Moore (eds)