The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian, 419.2 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, 358.9 Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied.
The Nautilida constitute a large and diverse order of generally coiled nautiloid cephalopods that began in the mid Paleozoic and continues to the present with a single family, the Nautilidae which includes two genera, Nautilus and Allonautilus, with six species. All told, between 22 and 34 families and 165 to 184 genera have been recognised, making this the largest order of the subclass Nautiloidea.
The Late Devonian extinction was one of five major extinction events in the history of life on Earth. A major extinction, the Kellwasser event, occurred at the boundary that marks the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, the Famennian faunal stage, about 376–360 million years ago. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera became extinct. A second, distinct mass extinction, the Hangenberg event, closed the Devonian period.
Tentaculites is an extinct genus of conical fossils of uncertain affinity, class Tentaculita, although it is not the only member of the class. It is known from Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian deposits both as calcitic shells with a brachiopod-like microstructure and carbonaceous 'linings'. The "tentaculites" are also referred to as the styliolinids.
Trimerocephalus is a genus of eyeless trilobites from the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae. It lived during the final stage of the Devonian, the Famennian, and became extinct at the end of this stage, together with all other trilobites with the exception of some Proetida. It can be found in Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Poland, the Russian Federation (Urals), Spain, and the United Kingdom (England).
Ormoceras is an actinocerid nautiloid genus and type for the family Ormoceratidae, found in North America from the late Chazyan though the early Cincinnatian of the Middle and Upper Ordovician, but which continued through the Devonian worldwide.
Atrypa is a genus of brachiopod with shells round to short egg-shaped, covered with many fine radial ridges, that split further out and growthlines perpendicular to the costae and 2-3 times wider spaced. The pedunculate valve is a little convex, but tends to level out or even become slightly concave toward the anterior margin. The brachial valve is highly convex. There is no interarea in either valve. Atrypa was a cosmopolitan and occurred from the late Lower Silurian (Telychian) to the early Upper Devonian (Frasnian). Other sources expand the range from the Late Ordovician to Carboniferous, approximately from 449 to 336 Ma. A proposed new species, A. harrisi, was found in the trilobite-rich Floresta Formation in Boyacá, Colombia.
The Brevicoceratidae is a family of oncocerids that contains genera characterized by exogastric gyrocones, brevicones, and torticones. that tend to develop vestigial actinosiphonate deposits and subtriangular transverse sections. The Brevicoceratidae are derived from Oonoceras (Oncoceratidae) and range from the mid-Silurian to the Upper Devonian.
Spyroceras is a genus of pseudorthocerids from the Devonian of North America and Europe, defined by Hyatt in 1884. Pseudorthocerids are a kind of orthocertaoid, a taxonomic group within the Nautiloidea. Specifically Spyroceras belongs to the pseudorthocerid family, Spyroceratidae.
The Tainocerataceae are a superfamily in the cephalopod order Nautilida characterized by straight to loosely coiled shells, generally to a degree such that the width is greater than the height, to quadrate whorl section. Many bore spines, ribs, frills, wings, or nodes. In early forms, the siphuncle is generally near ventral, but more variable in advanced forms.
Rutoceratidae is a family of prototypical nautilids, derived probably from either Brevicoceratidae or Acleistoceratidae of the order Oncocerida early in the Devonian. Rutoceratidae comprise a family within the oncocerid superfamily Tainocerataceae They are generally characterized by cyrtoconic and gyroconic shells, commonly with spines, nodes, or frills, although some included genera are almost orthoconic, and a commonly empty, tubular ventral siphuncle.
Polygrammoceras is an orthoconic nautiloid that lived during the period from the middle Ordovician to the early Devonian in what is now North America and Eurasia.
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.
Galtoceras is a cyrtoconic nautiloid from the Middle Silurian of North America, named by Foerste in 1934.
Grimsbyoceras is a nautiloid genus included in the Oncocerida order of the family Acleistoceratidae that lived during the Middle Devonian. They have been found in North America (Illinois) and central Europe.
Goldringia is an extinct nautilid of the Rutoceratidae family that lived during the Middle Devonian. It is known from New York, Ohio, and Indiana in the United States.
Aktjubocheilus is a genus of oncocerid nautiloids from the Upper Devonian included in the Acleistoceratidae, a family characterized by depressed, or rarely compressed, exogastric brevicones and cyrtocones.
