Mongoceras

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Mongoceras
Temporal range: 443.7–428.2  Ma
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Mongoceras

Mongoceras is an extinct orthoconic nautiloid cephalopod found in the Silurian of China and Siberia. [1] It is included in the Orthocerida. [2] The family in undetermined.

Contents

Morphology

As with the Orthocerida the shell of Mongoceras is generally long and straight, with a generally central siphuncle composed of thin connecting rings. A vertical, heads down orientation in life can be inferred, in contrast with the horizontal benthic orientation of ellesmerocerida, endocerids, and many actinocerids with their weighted ventral siphuncles. [3]

Association

Mongoceras has been found with Kionoceras , Geisonocers , and Sichuanoceras in Silurian reefoid formations in China, along with a suite of other benthic invertebrates. It has also been found in core samples from Siberia with Edenoceras hiliferum and Geisonoceras kureikense. [3]

Related Research Articles

Orthocerida Extinct order of molluscs

Orthocerida is an order of extinct Orthoceratoid cephalopods also known as the Michelinocerida that lived from the Early Ordovician possibly to the Late Triassic. A fossil found in the Caucasus suggests they may even have survived until the Early Cretaceous. They were most common however from the Ordovician to the Devonian.

Bactritida Fossil order of cephalopods

The Bactritida are a small order of more or less straight-shelled (orthoconic) cephalopods that first appeared during the Emsian stage of the Devonian period with questionable origins in Pragian stage before 409 million years ago, and persisted until Carnian pluvial event in the upper middle Carnian stage of the Triassic period. They are considered ancestors of the ammonoids, as well as of the coleoids.

Cameroceras is a genus of extinct, giant orthoconic cephalopod that lived mainly during the Ordovician period. It first appears during the middle Ordovician, around 470 million years ago, and was a fairly common component of the fauna in some places during the period, inhabiting the shallow seas of Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia. Its diversity and abundance became severely reduced following the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, and the last remnants of the genus went extinct sometime during the Wenlock.

Ascocerida Extinct order of molluscs

The Ascocerida are comparatively small, bizarre Orthoceratoids known only from Ordovician and Silurian sediments in Europe and North America, uniquely characterized by a deciduous conch consisting of a longiconic juvenile portion and an inflated breviconic adult portion that separate sometime in maturity.

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.

Michelinoceras is the oldest known genus of the Michelinocerida, more commonly known as the Orthocerida, characterized by long, slender, nearly cylindrical orthocones with a circular cross section, long camerae, very long body chambers, and a central or near central tubular siphuncle free of organic deposits. Septal necks are straight; connecting rings cylindrical and thin. Cameral deposits are well developed. A radula has been found in one species, with seven teeth per row. It had ten arms, two of which formed longer tentacles.

Tarphycerida Extinct order of molluscs

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.

Pseudorthocerida Extinct order of molluscs

Pseudorthocerida is an order of generally straight longiconic Orthoceratoids with a subcentral to marginal cyrtochoanitic siphuncle composed of variably expanded segments which may contain internal deposits that may develop into a continuous parietal lining.. Cameral deposits are common and concentrated ventrally. Apices typically have a slight to moderate exogastric curvature

<i>Kionoceras</i> Extinct genus of nautiloids

Kionoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod genus included in the orthocerid family Kionoceratidae with scattered worldwide distribution from the Middle Ordovician to the Lower Permian. Kionoceratids are orthocerids with prominent longitudinal ornamentation on their shells, sometimes augmented by secondary transverse ornamentation. Orthocerids are, of course, prehistoric nautiloides with generally straight and elongate shells, mostly with central or subcentral siphuncles.

Pseudorthoceratidae Extinct family of molluscs

Pseudorthoceratidae is an extinct family of actively mobile aquatic carnivorous cephalopods belonging to the subclass Orthoceratoidea endemic to what would be North America, Asia, and Europe during the Silurian living from 460.5—251 Ma, existing for approximately 209.5 million years.

Dawsonoceratidae

Dawsonoceratidae is an extinct family of orthoconic nautiloid cephalopods that lived in what would be North America and Europe from the Late Ordovician through the Middle Devonian from about 480–390 mya, existing for approximately 90 million years.

Tretoceras is an extinct genus of cephalopods included in the Orthocerida that lived in what would be Europe during the early Middle Ordovician, fossils of which have been found only in Austria.

Orthoceratoidea Extinct subclass of cephalopods

Orthoceratoidea is a subclass, formerly considered an infraclass or a superorder, that comprises Cephalopoda orders that have orthoconic to slightly cyrtoconic shells and central to subcentral siphuncles in which there may be internal deposits. Currently, Orthoceratoidea comprises the orders Dissidocerida, Ascocerida, Pseudorthocerida, Lituitida and Orthocerida.

Phragmoceratidae Extinct family of molluscs

The Phragmoceratidae is a family of extinct nautiloid cephalopods from the Order Discosorida that lived during the latter part of the Silurian.

Jaochimoceras is a genus of orthoceroid cephalopods from the Silurian of Central Europe (Bohemia) named by Baskov, 1960, and included in the Geisonoceratidae. As with the orthocerids, its shell is longiconic, siphuncle more or less central, and chambers somewhat long.

Temperoceras is a genus of orthoconic nautiloid cephalopods named by Barskov in 1960 that lived in what is now north Africa, Europe, and Asia during the early Paleozoic.

Sactorthceras is an orthoceratoid genus known from the Middle Ordovician of eastern North America (NY), Norway and Korea and is the type genus of the Sactorthoceratidae.

Centroonoceras is a middle Ordovician cyrtoconic nautiloid cephalopod, otherwise similar to the orthoconic Sactorthoceras and also included in the Sactorthoceratidae. It was named by Kobayashi, 1934, and has been found in Korea and in New York state in the eastern U.S.

Dolorthoceras is a nautiloid cephalopod from the upper Paleozoic found in Lower Devonian to Lower Permian strata in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Tofangoceras is a genus of pseudorthoceroid cephalopods from the Middle Ordovician of the USA (NY) and Asia belonging to the Stereoplasmoceratidae and similar to Stereoplansmoceras.

References

  1. PaleoBiology Database Mongocerasentry accessed 10 July 2012
  2. Sepkoski's list of Cephalopod genera
  3. 1 2 C. Teichert (1964). R.C. Moore (ed.). Part K, Mollusca 3. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press. p. K190–K216.