The Ellesmeroceratidae constitute a family within the

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda ( Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, ...

order

Ellesmerocerida The Ellesmerocerida is an order of primitive cephalopods belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea with a widespread distribution that lived during the Late Cambrian and Ordovician. Morphology The Ellesmerocerida are characterized by shells that ...

. They lived from the

Upper Cambrian The Furongian is the fourth and final epoch and series of the Cambrian. It lasted from to million years ago. It succeeds the Miaolingian series of the Cambrian and precedes the Lower Ordovician Tremadocian Stage. It is subdivided into three sta ...

to the

Lower 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. T ...

. They are characterized by straight and endogastric shells, often laterally compressed, so the dorso-ventral dimension is slightly greater than the lateral, with close spaced sutures having shallow lateral lobes and a generally large tubular ventro-marginal siphuncle with concave segments and irregularly spaced diaphragms. Connecting rings are thick and layered, externally straight but thickening inwardly with the maximum near the middle of the segment so as to leave concave depressions on internal siphuncle molds. Septal necks are typically orthochoanitic but vary in length from almost absent (achoanitic) to reaching halfway to the previous septum (hemichoanitic) and may even slope inwardly (loxochoanitic).

Evolution and phylogeny

The Ellesmeroceratidae have their derivation in the

Plectronoceratidae Plectronocerida is a primitive order from which subsequent cephalopod orders are ultimately derived.Curt Teichert, 1988. Main Features of Cephalopod Evolution. The Mollusca Vol. 12 Paleontology and Neontology of Cephalopds; Academic Pres Inc. Oc ...

, order

Plectronocerida Plectronocerida is a primitive order from which subsequent cephalopod orders are ultimately derived.Curt Teichert, 1988. Main Features of Cephalopod Evolution. The Mollusca Vol. 12 Paleontology and Neontology of Cephalopds; Academic Pres Inc. Oc ...

, in

Trempealeauan The Trempealeauan is the upper or latest stage of the Upper or Late Cambrian in North America, spanning about 4 million years from about 492.5 to 488.3 m.y.a., equivalent to the Fengshanian of China. The name comes from the Trempealeau Formation ...

stage of the Late Cambrian from which time 13 genera have been described. The earliest described, assigned to the Ellesmeroceratidae, is the early Trempealeauan ''Hunuanoceras'', which comes from the lower part of the upper Yenchou Member of the Fengshan Formation in China. ''Hunuanoceras'' is a small endogastric cyrtocone resembling the anscestral ''Plectronoceras'' except for having resistant calcified connecting rings. ''Hunuanoceras'' is followed by ''Eburoceras'', which first appears in the upper part of the upper Yenchou and continues throughout the overlying Wanwankou Member of the Fengshan. The Wanwankou is middle and early upper Trempealeauan. The remaining eleven genera are restricted to the Wanwankou, except for ''

Clarkoceras ''Clarkoceras'' is a genus of breviconic ellesmerocerid cephalopods, one of only two genera known to have crossed from the Late Cambrian, Trempealeauan, into the Early Ordovician, Gasconadian. (Flower 1964, Teichert 1988); the other being ''Ect ...

'' and ''

Ectenolites ''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 ...

'', which persist into the Lower Ordovician. ''Clarkoceras'' and ''Ectenolites'' provide the ancestry for the diverse ellesmerceratitds of the Early Ordovician, Gasconadian, and those that followed. The Gasconadian was dominated to virtual exclusion by the Ellesmeroceratidae, which diversified during that time into a variety of forms and genera. Some like ''

Ellesmeroceras ''Ellesmeroceras'' is the type genus for the Ellesmeroceratidae, a family of primitive nautiloid cephalopods, that is characterized by its small, generally compressed, gradually expanded, orthoconic shell, found in Lower Ordovician marine sedime ...

'' and ''Eremoceras'' were straight shelled, following the example of ''Ectenolites''. Others like ''Dakeoceras'' and ''Burenoceras'' were endogastric in the sense of ''Clarkoceras''. Gradations are found between elongate (longiconic) and short (breviconic) forms and between straight (orthoconic) and curved (cyrtoconic) forms, and between those with simple open apertures and those with apertures that have contracted. The Ellesmeroceratidae gave rise within the Ellesmerocerida to the Protocycloceratidae, Bassleroceratidae, and possibly the Cylostomiceratidae in the early Canadian (late Gasconadian (?), Demingian) and to the Bathmoceratidae, and Cyrtocerinidae in the late Canadian (late Jeffersonian or Cassinian). The Ellesmeroceratidae also gave rise at about the close of the Gasconadian to the

Endocerida 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 Siluri ...

Tarphycerida The Tarphycerida were the first of the coiled cephalopods, found in marine sediments from the Lower Ordovician (middle and upper Canad) to the Middle Devonian. Some, such as ''Aphetoceras'' and ''Estonioceras'', are loosely coiled and gyroconic; ...

, and to the

Orthocerida 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 t ...

through the ancestral Baltoceratidae, at which time they cease to be the dominant element in cephalopod faunas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5365269 Prehistoric nautiloid families Cambrian first appearances Early Ordovician extinctions Ellesmerocerida