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.
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.
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.
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.
Pseudohaloritidae is the larger of two families that form the goniatitid superfamily Pseudohaloritoidea, the other being the monogenerc Maximitidae. They are part of the vast array of shelled cephalopods known as ammonoids that are more closely related to squids, belemnites, octopuses, and cuttlefish, than to the superficially similar Nautilus.
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.
The Oncocerida comprise a diverse group of generally small nautiloid cephalopods known from the Middle Ordovician to the Mississippian, in which the connecting rings are thin and siphuncle segments are variably expanded. At present the order consists of some 16 families, a few of which, such as the Oncoceratidae, Brevicoceratidae, and Acleistoceratidae contain a fair number of genera each while others like the Trimeroceratidae and Archiacoceratidae are represented by only two or three.
Slender Oncoceratidae are those in the family Oncoceratidae, which have slender, commonly curved, shells. Some like Oocerina are gently curved, almost straight, and with only slight expansion. Others like Dunleithoceras are strongly curved with a more notable rate of expansion. Inclusion in this somewhat arbitrary category is based on illustrations in the Treatise Part K, 1964.
The Trocholitidae are Tarphycerida with whorls in close contact as with the Tarphyceratidae, but in which the siphuncle, similar in structure, becomes dorsal. The Trocholitidae are derived from the Tarphyceratidae, perhaps from different tarphyceratids.
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.
Turnoceras is a genus of Devonian cephalopods belonging to the oncocerid family Nothoceratidae. Its shell is broadly expanding and exogastrically curved such that the flattened dorsum is on longitudinally concave side. Aperture unconstricted with no hyponomic sinus for the water jet funnel. siphuncle along the outer, ventral, side, with radial, plate-like actinosiphonate deposits occupying the interior.
Ankyloceras is a genus of Early Devonian cephalopods included in the oncocerid family Karoceratidae. The type species, Ankyloceras nesnayamiense named by Zhuravleva, 1974, comes from Nova Zemlya in Russia. Other species have been found in Japan, Morocco, and Russia.
Permonautilus is an extinct genus of nautilids from the Upper Permian of Russia, named and described by Kruglov in 1933. Permonautilus is an involute, globular, spinose member of the Lirocertidae which are included in the Clydonautilaceae. Whorl sections are broad, with a rounded venter. The umbilicus in the middle of the shell is deep, from which spine-like processes extend laterally in the mature portion near the aperture. The siphuncle in Permonautilus is subcentral, the suture, slightly sinuous.
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.
Oncoceratidae is a family of nauatiloid cephalopods in the order Oncocerida established by Hyatt, 1884, that range from the Middle Ordovician to the Upper Silurian.
The Actinoceriatidae are a family of actinocerids named by Saemann in 1853 for those that grew to have large shells with blunt apices and large siphuncles with widely expanded segments and a generally arcuate endosiphucular canal system. Their range is from the upper Middle Ordovician to the Lower Silurian. Actinocerids are generally straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopods with a siphuncle composed of expanded segments, typically with thin connecting rings, in which the internal deposits are penetrated by a system of canals
The Armenoceratidae are a family of early Paleozoic nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Actinocerida.
Endoceratidae is a family of large to very large straight shelled nautiloid cephalopods belonging to the order Endocerida that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. They include the largest known Paleozoic invertebrates, represented by Endoceras and Cameroceras.
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.
Protactinocerida is a proposed order of Late Cambrian nautiloid cephalopods. Their fossils have only been found in the Late Cambrian of North China, a diversity pattern similar to other early cephalopod orders.
