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Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods (Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living Nautilus and Allonautilus. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and species rich, with over 2,500 recorded species. They flourished during the early Paleozoic era, when they constituted the main predatory animals. Early in their evolution, nautiloids developed an extraordinary diversity of shell shapes, including coiled morphologies and giant straight-shelled forms (orthocones). No orthoconic and only a handful of coiled species, the nautiluses, survive to the present day.
Orthoceras is a genus of extinct nautiloid cephalopod restricted to Middle Ordovician-aged marine limestones of the Baltic States and Sweden. This genus is sometimes called Orthoceratites. Note it is sometimes misspelled as Orthocera, Orthocerus or Orthoceros.
Endocerida is an extinct nautiloid order, a group of cephalopods from the Lower Paleozoic with cone-like deposits in their siphuncle. Endocerida was a diverse group of cephalopods that lived from the Early Ordovician possibly to the Late Silurian. Their shells were variable in form. Some were straight (orthoconic), others curved (cyrtoconic); some were long (longiconic), others short (breviconic). Some long-shelled forms like Endoceras attained shell lengths close to 6 metres (20 ft). The related Cameroceras is anecdotally reported to have reached lengths approaching 9 metres (30 ft), but these claims are problematic. The overwhelming majority of endocerids and nautiloids in general are much smaller, usually less than a meter long when fully grown.
Camerae are the spaces or chambers enclosed between two adjacent septa in the phragmocone of a nautiloid or ammonoid cephalopod molluscus. These can be seen in cross-sections of a nautilus shell and in the polished cross-sections of ammonites. In life these chambers are filled with gas, mediated by the siphuncle, and used to control buoyancy.
Orthocerida, also known as the Michelinocerida, is an order of extinct orthoceratoid cephalopods 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, and the Eocene fossil Antarcticeras is sometimes considered a descendant of the orthocerids although this is disputed. They were most common however from the Ordovician to the Devonian.
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 the Pragian stage before 409 million years ago, and persisted until the 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 an extinct genus of endocerid cephalopod which lived in equatorial oceans during the entire Ordovician period. Like other endocerids, it was an orthocone, meaning that its shell was fairly straight and pointed. It was particularly abundant and widespread in the Late Ordovician, inhabiting the shallow tropical seas in and around Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia.
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.
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
Baltoceratidae is an extinct family of orthoconic cephalopods belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea endemic to what would be Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America during the Ordovician living from about 480–460 mya, existing for approximately 20 million years.
Geisonocerina is an extinct genus from the carnivorous nautiloid cephalopod order Orthocerida that lived in what would be North America, Europe, and Asia during the Ordovician through Permian from 449 to 290 mya, existing for approximately 159 million years.
Hemicosmorthoceras is an extinct genus of actively mobile carnivorous cephalopod, essentially a Nautiloid, that lived in what would be present day Europe during the Silurian to Devonian from 422.9—412.3 mya, existing for approximately 10.6 million years.
Leurocycloceras is an extinct genus of actively mobile carnivorous cephalopod, essentially a Nautiloid, that lived in what would be North America, Europe, and Asia during the Silurian from 443.7—418.7 mya, existing for approximately 25 million years.
Mongoceras is an extinct orthoconic nautiloid cephalopod found in the Silurian of China and Siberia. It is included in the Orthocerida. The family in undetermined.
Neosichuanoceras is an extinct genus of actively mobile carnivorous cephalopod, essentially a Nautiloid, that lived in what would be Asia during the Silurian from 436.0 to 428.2 mya, existing for approximately 7.8 million years.
Orthocycloceras is an extinct genus of actively mobile carnivorous cephalopods, essentially a Nautiloid, that lived in what would be Europe during the Silurian to Devonian from 428.2 to 412.3 mya, existing for approximately 15.9 million years.
Parasphaerorthoceras is an extinct orthocerid genus, a nautiloid cephalopod, that lived in what would be Europe and north Africa during the Silurian from 422.9 to 418.1 mya, having existed for approximately 4.8 million years.
Protobactrites is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod belonging to the Orthoceratoidea that lived in what would be Europe and Asia during the Ordovician and Silurian from 466–421.3 mya, existing for approximately 44.7 million years.
Sactoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod that lived during the Ordovician and Silurian in what would become North America, Europe, and Asia.
The Phragmoceratidae is a family of extinct nautiloid cephalopods from the Order Discosorida that lived during the latter part of the Silurian.
References
- ↑ Murchisoniceras, basic info
- ↑ Nomen Zool genera
- ↑ Sepkoski's list of Cephalopod genera, online results
- ↑ Murchizoniceras in Biolib
- ↑ Ivan Kolebaba, A Contribution to the theory of the cameral mantle in some Silurian Nautiloidea (Mollusca, Cephalopoda). Bulletin of the Czech Geological Survey, Vol 77, NO 3, 1830186, 2002.
