Megaloceras

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Megaloceras
Temporal range: Silurian
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Megaloceras

Megaloceras is a genus of the nautiloid order Oncocerida that lived during the Silurian period of the Paleozoic. It is included in the family Karoceratidae, characterized by compressed straight or exogastricly curved shells with slender ventral siphuncles.

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Septum (cephalopod)

Septa are thin walls or partitions between the internal chambers (camerae) of the shell of a cephalopod, namely nautiloids or ammonoids.

Oncocerida Extinct order of nautiloids

The Oncocerida comprise a diverse group of generally small nautiloid cephalopods known from the Middle Ordovician to the Mississippian, in which the connecting rings are thin and siphuncle segments are variably expanded. At present the order consists of some 16 families, a few of which, such as the Oncoceratidae, Brevicoceratidae, and Acleistoceratidae contain a fair number of genera each while others like the Trimeroceratidae and Archiacoceratidae are represented by only two or three.

The Tarphycerida were the first of the coiled cephalopods, found in marine sediments from the Lower Ordovician to the Middle Devonian. Some, such as Aphetoceras and Estonioceras, are loosely coiled and gyroconic; others, such as Campbelloceras, Tarphyceras, and Trocholites, are tightly coiled, but evolute with all whorls showing. The body chamber of tarphycerids is typically long and tubular, as much as half the length of the containing whorl in most, greater than in the Silurian Ophidioceratidae. The Tarphycerida evolved from the elongated, compressed, exogastric Bassleroceratidae, probably Bassleroceras, around the end of the Gasconadian through forms like Aphetoceras. Close coiling developed rather quickly, and both gyroconic and evolute forms are found in the early middle Canadian.

Pseudobrevicoceras is an extinct genus of nautilitoid cephalopods in the order Oncocerida. The familial position is undetermined.

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.

Zittelloceras is an extinct genus of nauiloids from the order Oncocerida which are among a large group of once diverse and numerous shelled cephalopods, now represented by only a handful of species.

Basslerocerida is an order of nautiloid cephalopods from the Ordovician comprising exogastric longiconic cyrtocones, that is no longer in common use.

The Graciloceratidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods from the Middle and Upper Ordovician belonging to the Oncocerida, characterized by exogastric cyrtocones that expand slightly or moderately and have thin walled, orthochoanitic marginal or subventral, tubular siphuncles.

Oncoceratidae Extinct family of nautiloids

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.

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.

The Nautilitoidea is a superorder within the subclass Nautiloidea, comprising the phylogenetically related Nautilida, Oncocerida, and Tarphycerida.

Nothoceratidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods in the orthoceratoid order Oncocerida in which shells are exogastrically or endogastrically breviconic, planospiral, or torticonic; often with a constricted or visored aperture; and a siphuncle commonly composed of concave segments and occupied by actinosiphonate deposits. Some ten genera have been described which lived during the time between the Early Silurian and Late Devonian. The ancestral form is probably Perimecoceras which is known from the Upper Silurian of central Europe and which is similar in external form the Oonoceras from the Oncoceratidae.


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.

Perimecoceras is a genus of nothoceratids, nautilitoids in the order oncocerida, with a slowly expanding, compressed, cyrtoconic shell, known from the Upper Silurian of central Europe.

Fayettoceras is a genus in the nautiloid family Valcouroceratidae, part of the order Oncocerida, Fayettoceras has a shell which is a depressed cyrtocone with a ventral cyrtochoanitic siphuncle of elongated ovoid segments strongly contracted at the septal necks. The internal structure is unknown.

Augustoceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods included in the order Oncocerida and family Valcouroceratidae. It is known form the Middle and Upper Ordovician of Kentucky and Ohio in the US.

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.

Leonardoceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods from the lower Middle Ordovician of Nevada (USA), the shell a small slender exogastric cyrtocone with the venter more narrowly rounded than the dorsum, resembling in overall form a small Bassleroceras. Septa are close spaced, the living chamber short, the siphuncle close to the venter.

Karoceratidae is a family of nautiloids within the order Oncocerida, characterized by straight or curved, laterally narrow, shells and slender, ventral siphuncles that are empty except in Karoceras. Siphuncle segments are inflated ventrally but straight dorsally. Septal necks are cyrtochoanitic, outwardly curved; connecting rings are thin.

Codoceras is a genus of nautiloid genus belonging to the Polyelasmoceratidae, an Oncocerida family.

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