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Graciloceratidae
The Graciloceratidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods from the Middle and Upper Ordovician belonging to the Oncocerida, characterized by exogastric cyrtocones that expand slightly or moderately and have thin walled, orthochoanitic marginal or subventral, tubular siphuncles (Sweet 1964). The Graciloceratidae was proposed by Rousseau Flower in 1950 and at that time placed in the Basslerocerida which has since been abandoned. It is now assigned to the Oncocerida (Sweet 1964). Phylogeny The Graciloceratidae are most likely derived from the Bassleroceratidae (Flower 1950) from which they differ primarily in having thin rather than thick connecting rings. They are also the most likely source for the Oncoceratidae, Tripteroceratidae, and Valcouroceratidae (Flower 1950). Included genera The Graciloceratidae contains five known genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basslerocerida
Basslerocerida is an order (biology), order of Nautiloidea, nautiloid cephalopods from the Ordovician comprising exogastric longiconic cyrtocones,R. H. Flower and B. Kummel. 1950. A Classification of the Nautiloidea. Journal of Paleontology 24(5):604-616 that is no longer in common use. Taxonomy The Order Basslerocerida was established by Flower and Kummel (1950) for forms intermediary between the ancestral Ellesmerocerida and the more advanced Tarphycerida and Oncocerida. The order, as originally defined, contains two families, the Bassleroceratidae with thick-walled siphuncles which gave rise to the Tarphycerida, and the Graciloceratidae, derived from the former, with thin-walled siphuncles which gave rise to the Onocerida. The speculation in Flower and Kummel (1950) that the Basslerocerida, through the Graciloceratidae, might have given rise to the Barrandeocerida may account for the inclusion of the Tarphycerida, Barradeocerina in the Basslerocerida in some classifications and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oncoceratidae
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. Diagnosis Oncoceratidae are characterized by generally compressed, cyrtoconic, and breviconic shells with an exogastric curvature such that the ventral profile is convex or more so than dorsal, and in which the siphuncle is generally empty and located ventral of the center. In primitive forms, the siphuncle in early growth stages is composed of tubular segments with almost straight suborthochoanitic septal necks, but becomes cyrtochoanitic with expanded segments in the later growth stages, and is expanded and cyrtochoanitic throughout in advanced forms. In a few advanced forms, the siphuncle is actinosiphonate. (Flower 1950, Sweet 1964) Evolution The Oncoceratidae first appeared early in the Middle Ordovician (Sweet 1964) simultaneously with the Graciloceratidae, Tripteroceratidae, and Valcouroceratidae, derived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oncocerida
The Oncocerida comprise a diverse group of generally small nautiloid cephalopods known from the Middle Ordovician to the Mississippian (early Carboniferous; one possible member is known from the Early Permian), in which the connecting rings are thin and siphuncle segments are variably expanded (Flower, 1950). 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 (Sweet, 1964). Physical characteristics The shells of oncocerids are primarily somewhat compressed cyrtoconic brevicones. More advanced forms include gyrocones, serpenticones, torticones, and elongate orthocones and cyrtocones, reflective of the different families and genera (Flower, 1950; Sweet, 1964). The siphuncle in the Oncocerida is commonly located at or near the ventral margin. Connecting rings are m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tripteroceratidae
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 segments included in the Oncocerida (Sweet, 1964). The Tripteroceratidae appeared almost simultaneously with the Oncoceratidae and Valcouroceratidae early in the Middle Ordovician, and are most likely derived from the Graciloceratidae The Graciloceratidae is a family of nautiloid cephalopods from the Middle and Upper Ordovician belonging to the Oncocerida, characterized by exogastric cyrtocones that expand slightly or moderately and have thin walled, orthochoanitic marginal .... Genera The Tripteroceratdae includes five known genera, as briefly described. ''Tripteroceras'', the type genus, named by Hyatt (1884) is characterized by a small, straight or slightly exogastric shell with a broad, depressed triangular cross section. The venter, underneath, is flat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. The Ordovician, named after the Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, who were placing the same rock beds in North Wales in the Cambrian and Silurian systems, respectively. Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian systems, and placed them in a system of their own. The Ordovician received international approval in 1960 (forty years after Lapworth's death), when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress. Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it did in the earlier C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. In a broad sense, "nautiloid" refers to a major cephalopod subclass or collection of subclasses (Nautiloidea ''sensu lato''). Nautiloids are typically considered one of three main groups of cephalopods, along with the extinct ammonoids (ammonites) and living coleoids (such as squid, octopus, and kin). While ammonoids and coleoids are monophyletic clades with exclusive ancestor-descendant re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalopods
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symmetry, bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of cephalopod arm, arms or tentacles (muscular hydrostats) modified from the primitive molluscan foot. Fishers sometimes call cephalopods "inkfish", referring to their common ability to squirt Cephalopod ink, ink. The study of cephalopods is a branch of malacology known as teuthology. Cephalopods became dominant during the Ordovician period, represented by primitive nautiloids. The class now contains two, only distantly related, Extant taxon, extant subclasses: Coleoidea, which includes octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish; and Nautiloidea, represented by ''Nautilus (genus), Nautilus'' and ''Allonautilus''. In the Coleoidea, the molluscan shell has been internalized or is absent, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exogastric
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Siphuncles
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. Function The siphuncle is used primarily in emptying water from new chambers as the shell grows. To perform this task, the cephalopod increases the saltiness of the blood in the siphuncle, and the water moves from the more dilute chamber into the blood through osmosis. At the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rousseau Flower
Rousseau Hayner Flower (1913–1988) was an extremely prolific 20th century paleontologist, known for his eccentric personality. Career Although trained as an entomologist, and a specialist in dragonflies and orthopterans, Flower began studying paleontology in the middle of the 1930s. He became an expert in North American cephalopods of the Devonian period as well as the stratigraphy of the early Paleozoic era. His main field was the nautiloids, which he studied intensely, often focusing on life habits and theoretical aspects of paleobiology, but he also penned many papers on fossil corals and other invertebrates. Flower described several hundred new fossil species and over 100 new genera. Eccentricities In the paleontology community, Flower's colorful behavior earned him admirers and enemies—whom he would occasionally "thank" in the acknowledgement sections of his papers or, in one case, in the name of a fossil species. His antics included mocking the alleged l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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