| Plectronocerida | |
|---|---|
 | |
| P. cambria | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Subclass: | Nautiloidea |
| Superorder: | † Plectronoceratoidea |
| Order: | † Plectronocerida Teichert, 1988 |
| Families and genera | |
Plectronoceratidae Balkoceratidae | |
Plectronocerida is a primitive order from which subsequent cephalopod orders are ultimately derived. [1] [2]
Plectronoceratids are known from the Upper Cambrian (upper Franconian – middle Trempealeauan) of China and North America (Minnesota, Wisconsin). Two families are recognized (Flower, 1964), [3] the generally straight to endogastric Plectronoceratidae and the slightly exogastric Balkoceratidae.
Members of the Plectronocerida are characterized as follows. Shells are generally small, some even tiny, laterally compressed, curved (cyrtochonic) or straight (orthoconic). Most cyrtoconic forms are endogastric, with the ventral side longitudinally concave, or the dorsal side more longitudinally convex. A few, the two known genera in Balkoceratidae are exogastrically curved, with the ventral side convex and dorsal side concave. Septa are close spaced, in some less than a millimeter. Siphuncles are ventral, and in most, proportionally large. Connecting rings are in general poorly calcified and may expand as siphonal bulbs into the chambers where not restricted by septal necks. [3]
As with all shelled cephalopods, plectronocerids had a tube called a siphuncle, which let them fill the chambers of their phragmocone with gas instead of water, thus controlling their buoyancy. [4] They were not, however, adapted for jet-powered swimming.
The Plectronoceratida gave rise in the Late Cambrian (early and middle Trempealeauan) to the other three plectronoceratoid orders, the Ellesmerocerida and Protactinocerida and Yanhecerida. The Plectronoceratidae gave rise to the other ellesmerocerid families, including the Upper Cambrian exogastric Balkoceratidea, and with remote possibility to the Discosorida. The Balkoceratidae are unrelated to later exogastric forms that first appeared in the Ordovician.
Plectronocerids were probably benthic animals that crawled along the bottom in search of food or safety, facing downwards, with the shell carried above. Nothing is known of their specific soft-part anatomy or to what extent tentacles, if any, had developed.
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.
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.
Ectenolites is a genus of small, slender, cylindrical Ellesmeroceratids that resemble Ellesmeroceras but are smaller and proportionally narrower. Septa, as typical for ellesmerocerids, are close spaced with shallow lobes on either flank. The body chamber is proportionally long, the shell itself slightly compressed. The dorsal side at the beginning of the shell, opposite the aperture and body chamber, is strongly convex so to produce a sense of endogastric curvature with the apex and siphuncle aligned.
Clarkoceras is a genus of breviconic ellesmerocerid cephalopods, one of only two genera known to have crossed from the Late Cambrian, Trempealeauan, into the Early Ordovician, Gasconadian. ; the other being Ectenolites.
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.
The Ellesmeroceratidae constitute a family within the cephalopod order Ellesmerocerida. They lived from the Upper Cambrian to the Lower Ordovician. They are characterized by straight and endogastric shells, often laterally compressed, so the dorso-ventral dimension is slightly greater than the lateral, with close spaced sutures having shallow lateral lobes and a generally large tubular ventro-marginal siphuncle with concave segments and irregularly spaced diaphragms. Connecting rings are thick and layered, externally straight but thickening inwardly with the maximum near the middle of the segment so as to leave concave depressions on internal siphuncle molds. Septal necks are typically orthochoanitic but vary in length from almost absent (achoanitic) to reaching halfway to the previous septum (hemichoanitic) and may even slope inwardly (loxochoanitic).
Westonoceras is an extinct nautiloid genus from the Discosorida that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician that has been found in North America, Greenland, and Northern Europe. It is the type genus for the Westonoceratidae
The Phragmoceratidae is a family of extinct nautiloid cephalopods from the Order Discosorida that lived during the latter part of the Silurian.
Protcycloceratidae is an extinct family of slender, commonly annulate, members of the cephalopod order Ellesmerocerida that lived during the Early Ordovician.
The cephalopods have a long geological history, with the first nautiloids found in late Cambrian strata, and purported stem-group representatives present in the earliest Cambrian lagerstätten.
Jiagouceras is a genus of early primitive cephalopods from the Upper Cambrian of China, assigned to the Plectronoceratidae. The shell is small, nearly straight with a slight endogastric curvature and compressed cross section. The siphuncle is close to the ventral margin, with segments expanded into the chambers.
Plectronoceratoidea is a superorder of primitive nautiloids from the Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician that include the ancestors of subsequent cephalopod orders. Included within are the exclusively Cambrian Plectronocerida, Protactinocerida, and Yanhecentida, and the Cambro-Ordovician Ellesmerocerida.
Paraplectronoceras is a genus of very early nautiloids from the middle Late Cambrian, named by Chen and Qi, 1979, type species Paraplectronoceras pyriforme, for small, endogastrically curved forms found in the upper Yenchou and Wanwankou members of the Fengshan Formation of northeastern China.
Simardoceras is a genus in the discosorid family Westonoceratidae from the Middle Ordovician of Quebec.
Sinclairoceras is a nautiloid cephalopod in the discosorid family Westonoceratidae from the Middle Ordovician Simard Limestone of Quebec. The shell is laterally compressed, upwardly curved, and short; an exogastric brevicone with the venter narrowly and dorsum broadly rounded. The dorsum, at the upper surface, is only slightly concave longitudinally. The venter, at the lower surface, is more strongly convex longitudinally, drawing away from the dorsum and forming a hump at the anterior end of the phragmocone where Sinclairoceras reaches its greatest width.
Apocrinoceratidae constitutes a family of Middle Ordovician nautiloid cephalopods characterized by straight or slightly curved, transversely ribbed shells having siphuncles composed of expanded segments, short recurved septal necks, and thick connecting rings. Derivation is from the Protocycloceratidae, a family of ellesmerocerids, which differ in having straight or concave siphuncle segments, but are otherwise similar in form.
Acaroceratidae is family of Upper Cambrian (Trempealeauan) nautiloid cephalopods included in the Ellesmerocerida that contains two known genera, Acaroceras and Weishanuceras, both found in northern China.
Cyrtogomphoceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods, recognized by its large breviconic shell with a notable endogastric curvature. The shell is fusiform in profile, reaching maximum width at or near the base of body chamber, which narrows toward the aperture. The siphuncle is large and slightly removed from the ventral side, that with the concave longitudinal profile. Siphuncle segments are short, as are chambers; septal necks recurved, connecting rings thick, bullettes at the apical end of the rings swollen. Cameral deposits are lacking.
Discosoridae comprise a family of endogastric discosorids,, with endocones in the siphuncle, ranging from the Middle Silurian to Middle Devonian.
Eburoceras is an early nautiloid cephalopod from the Upper Yenchau and Wanwankau, Upper Cambrian Trempealeauan of China, assigned to the Ellesmeroceratidae.
Notable fossil cephalopods (listed by first occurrence) | |||||||||
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| Cenozoic |
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| Mesozoic |
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| Palaeozoic |
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| Cambrian |
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