The Nautilida constitute a large and diverse order of generally coiled nautiloid cephalopods that began in the mid Paleozoic and continues to the present with a single family, the Nautilidae which includes two genera, Nautilus and Allonautilus, with six species. All told, between 22 and 34 families and 165 to 184 genera have been recognised, making this the largest order of the subclass Nautiloidea.
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 speciose, 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). Only a handful of rare coiled species, the nautiluses, survive to the present day.
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.
The Rutocertina is one of only three suborders in Shimankiy's (1957) classification of the Nautilida, the other two being the Lirocerina and Nautilina. Genera in the Rutocerina are redistributed in the Rutoceratina, Tainoceratina, and Centroceratina. The Lirocerina is redefined as the Liroceratina, and Nautilina.remains as is. In general terms these are similar to the simpler classification proposed by Kümmel 1964, wherein the Nautilida is divided into five superfamilies, the Tainocerataceae, Trigonocerataceae, Clydonautilacea, Aipocerataceae, and Nautilaceae. Shimanskiy's classification involves 34 families, Kümmel's only twenty-seven.
Hexagonites is an extinct genus from the nautiloid order, Nautilida which includes the genus Nautilus currently found living in the tropical western Pacific. Hexagonites is included in the family Tainoceratidae, part of the superfamily Tainoceratoidea
The Clydonautiloidea are a superfamily within the nautiloid order Nautilida characterized by smooth, generally globular, shells with nearly straight sutures, in early forms, but developing highly differentiated sutures in some later forms. Where known, the siphuncle tends to be central to subcentral.
The Trigonoceratoidea are a superfamily within the Nautilida that ranged from the Devonian to the Triassic, thought to have contained the source for the Nautilaceae in which Nautilus is found.
For a further discussion of this group as in use today, see the superfamily Tainocerataceae
Rutoceratidae is a family of prototypical nautilids, derived probably from either Brevicoceratidae or Acleistoceratidae of the order Oncocerida early in the Devonian. Rutoceratidae comprise a family within the oncocerid superfamily Tainocerataceae They are generally characterized by cyrtoconic and gyroconic shells, commonly with spines, nodes, or frills, although some included genera are almost orthoconic, and a commonly empty, tubular ventral siphuncle.
Tainonautilus is an extinct coiled cephalopod that lived during the Permian and Early Triassic which is included in the nautiloid family Tainoceratidae.
Liroceratidae is an extinct family of nautilids, shelled marine molluscs, belonging to the Clydonautiloidea, consisting of generally smooth, involute, nautiliconic forms with a small umbilicus. The whorl section is usually depressed and broadly rounded, the suture only slightly sinuous, and the siphuncle usually more or less central.
Trochoceras is a genus of trochoidally coiled nautiloid cephalopods placed in the nautilid family Rutoceratidae that lived during the Middle and Late Devonian in what is now central Europe.
Tainoceratidae is a family of late Paleozoic and Triassic nautiloids that are a part of the order Nautilida, characterized by large, generally evolute shells with quadrate to rectangular whorl sections. Shells may bear ribs or nodes, or both.
The Rhiphaeoceratidae are a small family of nautilids included in the superfamily Tainoceratoidea that comprises four very similar genera. These genera are characterized by a perforate umbilicus and little more than a single evolute coil. Whorl sections are oval, subquadrate, or subtrapezoidal. Sutures bend forward on the outer rim, forming wide shallow ventral saddles and dip strongly to the rear on the inner rim, forming deep dorsal lobes.
The Tetragonoceratidae is a small family of nautilitids constituting a part of the superfamily Tainocerataceae in which shells are coiled with a generally quadrate whorl section. Coiling is either gyroconic or evoluute with a slight dorsal impression. Flanks diverge from the umbilical to the ventral shoulders so as to make the whorl sections widest close to the venter. Nodes made develop on the flanks and shoulders. The siphuncle is tubular, typically found near the venter. Sutures are with lateral lobes and may possess dorsal and ventral lobes as well.
Hercoceras is a genus of trochoidally coiled nautiloid cephalopods placed in the nautilid family Rutoceratidae. These cephalopod lived i in the Eifelian age of the middle Devonian Period, which occurred 398-391 million years ago. Their shells have prominent lateral outgrowths in the form of spines and a high intraspecific variability.
Adelphoceras is a genus of middle Devonian coiled nautiloids from Europe with an oval whorl section and shallow depressed zone on the inner, dorsal, rim; a strongly contracted T-shaped aperture; ventral siphuncle containing actinosiphonate deposits, and two rows of spines on either side.
Capriocornites is a genus of rutoceratids from the Devonian, related to such genera as Rutoceras and Goldringia.
Sibyllonautilus is an extinct genus of nautiloids from the Middle and Late Triassic. It is one of the last of the Tainoceratidae, a family of nautilids whose range begins much earlier in the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian).
Diademoceras is a genus of nautiloid cephalopods from the middle Devonian of North America, named by Rousseau Flower in 1945. The genus is a tainoceratacean included in the nautilid family Rutoceratidae.
