Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing shortly after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, during the Danian epoch of the Paleocene.
The Nautilina is the last suborder of the Nautilida and the only nautiloids living since the end of the Triassic. The Nautilina, proposed by Shimanskiy, is basically the Nautilaceae of Kummel, 1964, defined by Furnish and Glenister, but differs in omitting two families, the Paracenoceratidae and Pseudonautilidae which instead are placed in the Liroceratina.
Ammonitina comprises a diverse suborder of ammonite cephalopods that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic Era. They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods.
Psiloceratoidea is a superfamily of Early Jurassic ammonoid cephalopods proposed by Hyatt in 1867, assigned to the order Ammonitida. They were very successful during Hettangian and Sinemurian. Last of them, family Cymbitidae and genera Hypoxynoticeras and Radstockiceras survived into Early Pliensbachian.
Permoceras, the sole member of the family Permoceratidae, is a genus of coiled nautiloids with a smooth, compressed involute shell, whorls higher than wide, earlier whorls hidden from view. The venter is rounded as are the ventral and umbilical shoulders, the flanks flattened. The siphuncle is ventrally subcentral. The suture, which is most characteristic, has a deep, narrow pointed ventral lobe and large, asymmetrical pointed lobes on either side.
Hercoglossidae is a family of Nautilid in the superfamily Nautilaceae. It was established by Spath in 1927 for smooth, involute nautiloids characterized by a suture with differentiated elements, known from the Upper Jurassic to the Oligocene.
The Clydonautiloidea are a superfamily within the nautiloid order Nautilida characterized by smooth, generally globular, shells with nearly straight sutures, in early forms, but developing highly differentiated sutures in some later forms. Where known, the siphuncle tends to be central to subcentral.
The Nautilaceae form one of five superfamilies that make up the Nautilida according to Bernard Kummel (1964), and the only one that survived past the Triassic. The Nautilaceae comprise six families: Nautilidae, Paracenoceratidae, Pseudonautilidae, Cymatoceratidae, Hercoglossidae, and Aturiidae. Shimanskiy (1957) separated the Paracenoceratidae and Pseudonautilidae from his near equivalent Nautilina and added them to the Lyroceratina, expanding the equivalent Clydonautilaceae and bringing it into the Jurassic. The Nautilaceae are represented by Nautilus and Allonautilus, genera included in the Nautilidae.
Syringonautilidae is a family of Nautiloidea from the middle to late Triassic. Syringonautilidae comprise the last of the Trigonoceratoidea and are the source for the Nautilaceae which continued the Nautiloidea through the Mesozoic and into the Cenozoic right down to the recent. Syringonautilidae is a strictly Triassic family, derived early in the Triassic from the Grypoceratidae.
Grypoceratidae is the longest-lived family of the Trigonoceratoidea, or of the near equivalent Centroceratina; members of the Nautilida from the Upper Paleozoic and Triassic.
The Centroceratidae is the ancestral family of the Trigonoceratoidea and of the equivalent Centroceratina; extinct shelled cephalopods belonging to the order Nautilida
Phylloceratidae is the predominant family of the Phylloceratina with some 15 or more genera found in rocks ranging from the Lower Jurassic to the Upper Cretaceous. Members of the Phylloceratidae are characterized by smooth, involute shells with very thin walls. Many are covered with fine growth lines but are usually without ribbing. Sutures are complex with the major and minor branches of the saddles with phylloid or spatulate endings.
Pachyceratidae is a family of Perisphinctoidean ammonites from the upper Middle - and lower Upper Jurassic. Genera within the Pachyceratidae have shells that are in general moderately involte but with most of the inner whorls exposed; whorl sections subquadrate to subtrapezoidal, with rounded venter. Ribbing is strong, in some sharp. Primary ribs typically branch above mid flanks into twos, threes, and even fours.
Pseudonautilidae is a family of Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous nautilid cephalopods belonging to the same superfamily as modern Nautilus, Nautilaceae, but forming a different branch from the family Nautilidae. Pseudonautilids, together with other nautilids, were contemporary with the ammonoids, which comprise an entirely different set of shelled cephalopod stocks more closely related to octopus and squid.
Placenticeratidae is an extinct family of mostly Late Cretaceous ammonites included in the superfamily Hoplitoidea, derived from the Engonoceratidae by an increase in suture complexity.
Lytoceratidae is a taxonomic family of ammonoid cephalopods belonging to the suborder Lytoceratina, characterized by very evolute shells that generally enlarge rapidly, having whorls in contact but mostly overlapping very sightly, or not at all.
Procymatoceras is a nautiloid cephalopod from the Middle Jurassic with a large, tightly involute, rapidly expanding shell. Early, inner, whorls are round in cross section. Later, outer, whorls, and mature living chamber are flattened on the sides and venter. Surface covered with sinuous ribs. Sutures have shallow ventral and dorsal lobes. Probably gave rise to Cymatonautilus and is the likely ancestor of Cymatoceras and Paracymatoceras. Procymatoceras has its origin in the earliest Nautilidae, in Cenoceras.
Cymatoceras is a wide-ranging extinct genus from the nautilitacean cephalopod family, Cymatoceratidae. They lived from the Late Jurassic to Late Oligocene, roughly from 155 to 23 Ma.
Deltocymatoceras is an involute cymatoceratid (Nautilioidea-Nautilida) with broadly arched whorl sides, strongly convergent on a narrow venter that bears a slight, rounded, keel-like ridge, and with no distinct ventro-latera shoulders. Sides bear cymatoceratid ribs that bifurcate near the middle of the whorl sides, but do not cross the venter. The suture has a somewhat pointed ventral saddle, broad lateral lobes and prominent saddles on the umbilical shoulders. The position of the siphuncle in undetermined.
Cleviceras is an extinct genus of cephalopod belonging to the family Hildoceratidae. These cephalopods existed in the Jurassic period, during Toarcian and possibly even uppermost Pliensbachian age. Sometimes, it is considered to be a synonym of Eleganticeras.
