Ammonoids are extinct spiral shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids. The earliest ammonoids appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing during or soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. They are often called ammonites, which is most frequently used for members of the order Ammonitida, the only remaining group of ammonoids from the Jurassic up until their extinction.
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.
Goniatids, informally goniatites, are ammonoid cephalopods that form the order Goniatitida, derived from the more primitive Agoniatitida during the Middle Devonian some 390 million years ago. Goniatites (goniatitids) survived the Late Devonian extinction to flourish during the Carboniferous and Permian only to become extinct at the end of the Permian some 139 million years later.
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.
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.
Endoceras is an extinct genus of large, straight shelled cephalopods that gives its name to the Nautiloid order Endocerida. The genus lived during the middle and upper Ordovician 470 to 443 million years ago. The cross section in the mature portion is slightly wider than high, but is narrower laterally in the young. Sutures are straight and transverse. Endoceras has a large siphuncle, located close to the ventral margin, composed of concave segments, especially in the young but which may be tubular in the adult stage. Endocones are simple, subcircular in cross section, and penetrated by a narrow tube which may contain diaphragms reminiscent of the Ellesmerocerid ancestor.
Aulatornoceras is a genus belonging to the subfamily Aulatornoceratinae, a member of the Goniatitida, an extinct order of shelled cephalopods included in the Ammonoidea. Aulatornoceras, which has been considered a subgenus of Tornoceras has ventro-lateral grooves. As with Tornoceras, the suture forms six lobes. The shell itself is involute.
Armatites is an Upper Devonian goniatitid included in the tornoceratid family. The shell, or conch, is discoidal, with flattened flanks, a flattened venter with a double keel, and a deep ventral sinus, but without ventrolateral grooves. The lateral saddle of the suture is broad. Armatites is known from the Upper Devonian (Fammenian) of Canning Basin in Australia. The subfamily in which it is included, the Aulatornoceratinae is also known from France with the genus Aulatornoceras.
Cheiloceratidae is a family of ammonoid cephalopods included in the goniatitid suborder Tornoceratina in which the suture has 4 to 12 lobes, the ventral one undivided and those in the lateral areas originating as subdivisions of internal and external lateral saddles.
The Posttornoceratidae are Late Devonian goniatites (Ammonoidea) included in the superfamily Tornoceratoidea. The family, Posttornoceratidae, named by Bogoslovsky in 1962, is based on the genus Posttornoceras, named by Wedekind in 1910, originally included in the Tornoceratidae.
Tornoceratidae is a family of goniatitid ammonoids from the middle and upper Devonian. The family is included in the suborder Tornoceratina and the superfamily Tornoceratoidea.
Aulatornoceratinae is one of three subfamilies of the goniatitid family Tornoceratidae, an extinct order of Paleozoic ammonoid cephalopods. Aulotornoceratinae was established as a subfamily by R.T.Becker, 1993, initially for Aulatornoceras, named by Schindewolf, 1922. Subsequently, four other genera have been added.
Prolecanitida is an order of extinct ammonoid cephalopods, the major Late Paleozoic group of ammonoids alongside the order Goniatitida. Prolecanitids had narrow shells, discoidal (disc-shaped) to thinly lenticular (lens-shaped). They retained a retrochoanitic siphuncle, a simple form with septal necks extending backwards. As is typical for ammonoids, the siphuncle sits along the ventral margin of the shell.
Agoniatitida, also known as the Anarcestida, is the ancestral order within the cephalopod subclass Ammonoidea originating from bactritoid nautiloids, that lived in what would become Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America during the Devonian from about the lower boundary of Zlichovian stage into Taghanic event during upper middle Givetian, existing for approximately 25 million years.
Homaloceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod from the Middle Devonian with a strongly curved shell, included in the nautilid family Centroceratidae.
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.
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.
The Centroceratidae is the ancestral family of the Trigonoceratoidea and of the equivalent Centroceratina; extinct shelled cephalopods belonging to the order Nautilida
Phoenixites is an early genus of the Falcitornoceratinae, a subfamily of the goniatitid Tornoceratidae family. This genus was named by Becker in 1995. The type species is "Tornoceras" frechi.
Linguatornoceras is genus of ammonoids that lived during Devonian period. Animals belonging to this genus had discoidal shells with no umbilicus and moderately high aperture. On the venter, conch is rounded or flattened. There might be ventro-lateral grooves and constrictions. Growth lines are biconvex. Suture has deep adventitious lobe which is closely tongue-shaped and subacute. Their fossils were found in Australia, Germany and Russia.
