The siphuncle is a strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. Only cephalopods with chambered shells have siphuncles, such as the extinct ammonites and belemnites, and the living nautiluses, cuttlefish, and Spirula. In the case of the cuttlefish, the siphuncle is indistinct and connects all the small chambers of that animal's highly modified shell; in the other cephalopods it is thread-like and passes through small openings in the septa (walls) dividing the camerae (chambers). Some older studies have used the term siphon for the siphuncle, though this naming convention is uncommon in modern studies to prevent confusion with a mollusc organ of the same name.
Plectronocerida is a primitive order from which subsequent cephalopod orders are ultimately derived.
The Ellesmerocerida is an order of primitive cephalopods belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea with a widespread distribution that lived during the Late Cambrian and Ordovician.
Actinoceras is the principal and root genus of the Actinoceratidae, a major family in the Actinocerida, that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. It is an extinct genus of nautiloid cephalopod that thrived in the warm waters of the United States and England during the Paleozoic era.
Bathmoceras is a primitive cephalopod genus from the Middle and Upper Ordovician. It is a member of the order Cyrtocerinida and is the only genus in the family Bathmoceratidae.
Allotrioceras is a tubular fossil from the Middle Ordovician of the state of New York, collected by Rousseau H. Flower; included by him in the Endocerida and placed in a new family, the Allotrioceratidae. Allotrioceras is characterized by a lateral pair of subequal conical structures, resembling the endocones of endocerids, separated by a straight partition that extends more than half way across from either the dorsal or ventral side, as perceived, and runs along the length. What remains is thought to represent a siphuncle, which ranges from about 8 millimeters (0.3 in) to about 15 millimeters (0.6 in) in diameter. On the basis of diagnosis, inclusion of Allotrioceras and the Allotrioceratidae, for which it is the type, in the endocerida seems at best tentative.
Beekmanoceras is a small cephalopod from the Middle Canadian Epoch of New York with a loosely coiled, gyroconic, shell in which the whorls are not in contact and the siphuncle is on the inner or concave side of the whorl. Furnish and Glenister (1964) placed Beekmanoceras in the Trocholitidae (Tarphycerida), interpreting the curvature to be ventral side convex, i.e. exogastastric and the siphuncle to be dorsal. Flower (1964) included Beekmanoceras in the Ellesmeroceratidae believing the siphuncle to be ventral and the curvature to be endogastric with the ventral side concave.
Williamsoceras is an endocerid that Rousseau Flower (1968) added to his Allotrioceratidae on the basis of having a vertical partition within the siphuncle, known as a ventral process, with inter-connecting tubule-like structures along its margin where intercepted by endocones. Three species are named and described from the Garden City limestone of Whiterockian age near Logan and northern Utah, including the genotype Williamsoceras adnatum. Two other species come from the Juab limestone of near equivalent age in the southern Confusion Range in the Ibex area in western Utah.
Cyrtobaltoceras is an extinct cephalopod genus known from the upper Lower Ordovician Fort Cassin Formation at Valcour, N.Y. that is included in the Nautiloid family Baltoceratidae
Microbaltoceras is an extinct genus of the cephalopod family Baltoceratidae that lived in what would be North America during the Early Ordovician. It was named by Rousseau Flower (1964) and assigned by him to the Baltoceratidae. The type species is Microbaltoceras minore which was found in the Threadgill Member of the Tanyard Formation in Gillespie County, Texas, USA.
Nybyoceras is an actinocerid genus assigned to the Armenoceratidae and similar to Armenoceras except for having a siphuncle close to the ventral side of the shell.
Macroloxoceras is a large pseuorthocerid from the upper Devonian of Central Colorado and Southern New Mexico with features resembling those found in actinocerids. Pseudorthocerids and actinocerids are extinct nautiloid cephalopods, generally with long straight shells and expanded siphuncle segments filled with organic deposits.
Protcycloceratidae is an extinct family of slender, commonly annulate, members of the cephalopod order Ellesmerocerida that lived during the Early Ordovician.
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.
Rangeroceras is an extinct orthoceratoid cephalopod genus that lived in what is now western North America during the latter part of the Early Ordovician.
Murrayoceras is a nautilid cephalopod included in the orthocerid family Baltoceratidae, widespread in the Middle Ordovician of North America, characterized by a depressed orthoconic shell with a subtriangular cross section and flattened venter and a proportionally large ventral siphuncle, 0.15 to 0.3 the dorso-ventral shell diameter. Septa are close spaced with sutures forming broad lobes on the upper flanks and ventral surface.
Plectoceras is a genus of nautiloids included in the tarphycerid suborder Barrandeocerina that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. It has been found widespread in the Middle and Upper Ordovician of North America.
Cyclostomiceratidae is an extinct family of Early Ordovician, (Cassinian), ellesmerocerid cephalopods characterized by short, essentially straight shells, a fairly rapidly expanding phragmocone and a ventral siphuncle in which septal necks are almost non-existent and connecting rings are thick and layered. As typical of the Ellesmerocerida, chambers are short, septa close spaced.
Eothinoceratidae is a family of Lower Ordovician nautiloid cephalopods included in the Cyrtocerinida. The family was originally established for the genus Eothinoceras.
Cyrtocerinidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods in the Order Cyrtocerinida, previously considered ellesmerocerids. Members of the family have slightly endogastric breviconic shells with ventral siphuncles that have connecting rings thickened as lobes that project straight into the interior.
