Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing during or soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
The siphuncle is a strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. Only cephalopods with chambered shells have siphuncles, such as the extinct ammonites and belemnites, and the living nautiluses, cuttlefish, and Spirula. In the case of the cuttlefish, the siphuncle is indistinct and connects all the small chambers of that animal's highly modified shell; in the other cephalopods it is thread-like and passes through small openings in the septa (walls) dividing the camerae (chambers). Some older studies have used the term siphon for the siphuncle, though this naming convention is uncommon in modern studies to prevent confusion with a mollusc organ of the same name.
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 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 mantle is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs: it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of flaps well beyond the visceral mass itself.
The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk.
Suecoceras is an endoceratid that lived during the Middle Ordovician. It is characterised by a long, straight, slender shell with a slightly expanded tip that curves slightly downwards.
Ceratitida is an order that contains almost all ammonoid cephalopod genera from the Triassic as well as ancestral forms from the Upper Permian, the exception being the phylloceratids which gave rise to the great diversity of post-Triassic ammonites.
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.
Pleurotomariidae, common name the "slit snails", is a family of large marine gastropods in the superfamily Pleurotomarioidea of the subclass Vetigastropoda. This family is a very ancient lineage; there were numerous species in the geological past. The genus includes several hundred fossil forms, mostly Paleozoic. It is one of the oldest gastropod families, commencing in the Cambrian.
The Anomphalidae is an extinct family of fossil sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. These are archaeogastropods which are included in the suborder Trochina. The Anomphalidae lived during the Paleozoic, from the Silurian to the Middle Permian. According to some authorities these snails belong instead to the Euomphalacea.
Sactoceras is an extinct nautiloid cephalopod that lived during the Ordovician and Silurian in what would become North America, Europe, and Asia.
The Naedyceras group comprises three similar and closely related openly coiled, gyroconic, genera within oncocerid family, Brevicoceratidae: Naedyceras, Gonionaedyceras, and Gyronaedyceras.
Trochus radiatus, common name the radiate top shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.
Ophioceras is a genus of closely coiled tarphycerid nautiloid cephalopods, the sole representatives of the family Ophidioceratidae, characterized by an evolute shell with narrow, subrounded, annulated whorls and a subcentral siphuncle composed of thin connecting rings that show no evidence of layering. The mature body chamber is strongly divergent and is the longest proportionally of any tarphycerid. The aperture has a deep hyponomic sinus and ocular sinuses, and so resembles some lituitids.
Fordillidae is an extinct family of early bivalves and one of two families in the extinct superfamily Fordilloidea. The family is known from fossils of early to middle Cambrian age found in North America, Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. The family currently contains two genera, Fordilla and Pojetaia, each with up to three described species. Due to the size and age of the fossil specimens, Fordillidae species are included as part of the Turkish Small shelly fauna.
Tuarangia is a Cambrian shelly fossil interpreted as an early bivalve, though alternative classifications have been proposed and its systematic position remains controversial. It is the only genus in the extinct family Tuarangiidae and order Tuarangiida. The genus is known solely from Middle to Late Cambrian fossils found in Europe and New Zealand. The genus currently contains two accepted species, Tuarangia gravgaerdensis and the type species Tuarangia paparua.
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.
Lagenida is an order of benthic foraminiferal protists in which the tests (shells) are monolamellar, with walls composed of optically and ultra-structurally radiate calcite, with the crystallographic c-axes perpendicular to the surface. Lagenids first appear in the Upper Silurian and continue to the Recent. They are currently divided into two superfamilies, the older Robuloidacea which range from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) and the younger Nodosariacea, ranging from the Permian to Recent.
Munditia meridionalis is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk, in the family Liotiidae.
