Kitatites

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Kitatites
Temporal range: early Late Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Discosorida
Genus:Kitatites
Zhuravleva, 1972

Kitatites is an extinct genus of Upper Devonian (Frasnian) cephalopods named by Zhuravleva, 1972. It is assigned to the nautiloid order Discosorida.

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 Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian period. It lasted from 382.7 million years ago to 372.2 million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian stage and followed by the Famennian stage.

Discosorida are an order of cephalopods that lived from the beginning of the Middle Ordovician, through the Silurian, and into the Devonian. Discosorids are unique in the structure and formation of the siphuncle, the tube that runs through and connects the camerae (chambers) in cephalopods, which unlike those in other orders is zoned longitudinally along the segments rather than laterally. Siphuncle structure indicated that the Discosorida evolved directly from the Plectronoceratida rather than through the more developed Ellesmerocerida, as did the other orders. Finally and most diagnostic, discosorids developed a reinforcing, grommet-like structure in the septal opening of the siphuncle known as the bullette, formed by a thickening of the connecting ring as it draped around the folded back septal neck.

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