Pseudactinoceras

Last updated

Pseudactinoceras
Temporal range: U Dev - L Carb
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Nautiloidea
Order: Pseudorthocerida
Family: Pseudactinoceratidae
Genus:Pseudactinoceras
Schindewolf, 1943

Pseudactinoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod included in the order Pseudorthocerida and the namesake of the family Pseudactinoceratidae (Sweet, 1964).

Cephalopod class of molluscs

A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda such as a squid, octopus or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot. Fishermen sometimes call them inkfish, referring to their common ability to squirt ink. The study of cephalopods is a branch of malacology known as teuthology.

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

Pseudactinoceraidae is a family in the nautiloid cephalopod order, Pseudorthocerida, known from the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian).

Contents

Description

Pseudactinocras are slightly depressed longiconic cyrtocones with a large siphuncle located between the center and ventral margin. Early siphuncle segments, in the juvenile phragmocone are suborthochoantic; later segments, in the mature phragmocone, become cyrtochoantic, nummuloidal, broader than long. Parietal deposits lining the interior of the siphuncle grow more prominently forward than backward, with canals slightly anterior of segment centers. Thick cameral deposits develop ventrally, but are only thin dorsally (Sweet, 1964).

Taxonomy

Pseudactinoceras was named by Schindewolf in 1943 (Sweet, 1964) and is the type genus of the pseudorthocerid family, Pseudactinoceratidae. The type species, P. promiscuum, came from the Lower Carboniferous (Visean = middle Mississippian) of Germany.

See also

Related Research Articles

Actinoceras is the principal and root genus of the Actinoceratidae, a major family in the Actinocerida, that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician.

Paraloxoceras is a genus of straight shelled, orthoconic nautiloid cephalopods, now extinct, that lived during the Early Carboniferous. Fossils have been found in Europe and central Asia; the type, P. konincki, named by Flower, came from Belgium.

Spyroceras is a genus of pseudorthocerids from the Devonian of North America and Europe, defined by Hyatt in 1884. Pseudorthocerids are a kind of orthocertaoid, a taxonomic group within the Nautiloidea. Specifically Spyroceras belongs to the pseudorthocerid family, Spyroceratidae.

Osbornoceras is a genus of Lower Silurian cyrtoconic nautiloid cephalopods known from Ohio and possibly Manitoba, one of five general currently included in the oncocerid family Karoceratidae.

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.

Brevicoceras is an extinct nautiloid genus from the order Oncocerida with wide distribution in the Middle Devonian in Eastern North America, Russia and Morocco. 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.

Neocycloceras is an extinct genus of nautiloid included in the Pseudorthocerida that lived during the Late Devonian and Mississippian. Neoclycloceras is characterized by a slender, generally circular shell with slightly oblique,sinuous surficial annulations. Its sutures have dorsal and ventral saddles and lateral lobes and become more oblique with age. Saddles point forward, lobes to the rear. Dorsal saddles are broad and low but the ventral ones are high and conspicuous. The siphuncle is located between the center and venter and is nummuloidal, composed of rounded expanded segments, the inside of which contains a continuous laminar lining that is thickest in the middle of the segments and thinnest at the septal necks. Neocycloceras has been found in Pennsylvania in North America and in Morocco in north Africa.

Tetrapleuroceras is an extinct prehistoric nautiloid from the Lower Permian of the Urals in Russia. Nautilids are a type of nautiloid, a subclass of shelled cephalopods that were once diverse and numerous but now only represented by Nautilus and Allonautilus

Wardoceras is an extinct nautiloid genus from the late Early Ordovician of Western Utah, assigned to the orthocerid family, Michelinoceratidae

Acleistoceras is a genus of the oncocerid, nautiloid family Acleistoceratidae that lived in the shallow seas that covered much of North America during the Devonian; living from 409—383.7 mya, existing for approximately 25.3 million years.

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.

Metabaltoceras, first described by Rousseau Flower in 1964, is a fossil cephalopod genus in the family Baltoceratidae, with a small, slender, fairly fusiform shell, and a large empty siphuncle in contact with the ventral surface. The siphuncle is achoanitic, having virtually no septal necks, segments formed all but entirely by connecting rings. Shells are generally straight, beginning with a subcircular cross section in the adapical portion but becoming faintly depressed adorally. Sutures are straight and transverse except ventrally, where they produce deep, prominent lobes.

Sactoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod that lived during the Ordovician and Silurian in what would become North America, Europe, and Asia.

The Tripteroceratidae is a family of depressed, straight to slightly curved nautiloid cephalopods from the middle and upper Ordovician with generally flattened venters and empty siphuncles with straight to inflated sedments included in the Oncocerida.

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.

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. Apertures vary from round to T-shaped, with a long narrow, ventral, hyponomic sinus for the maneuvering funnel. Siphuncles are commonly central or subcentral with generally broad, expanded, segments and usually thin connecting rings.

The Sactorthoceratidae comprise Orthocerataceaen genera with a subcentral suborthochoanitic siphuncle composed of slightly expanded segments and free of organic deposits. The camerae (chambers) of the phragmocone likewise have organic deposits that are typically retarded or sparse.

Simardoceras is a genus in the discosorid family Westonoceratidae from the Middle Ordovician of Quebec.

Campyloceras is a genus of Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) pseudorthocerid that has an elongate, moderately curved, shell. Curvature is greatest toward the apex and lessens in the adult portion. The siphuncle is central to subcentral with moderately to strongly inflated segments. Cameral deposits are well developed on the convex side, toward the apex while only thin on the concave side, making the curvature exogastric.

References

The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and covering every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant invertebrate animals. The prehistoric invertebrates are described as to their taxonomy, morphology, paleoecology, stratigraphic and paleogeographic range. However, genera with no fossil record whatsoever have just a very brief listing.