Proteoceratidae is an extinct

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of actively mobile aquatic

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

cephalopod 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 symm ...

s belonging to the subclass

Orthoceratoidea Orthoceratoidea, from Ancient Greek ὀρθός (''orthós''), meaning "straight", and κέρας (''kéras''), meaning "horn", is a major subclass of nautiloid cephalopods. Members of this subclass usually have orthoconic (straight) to slightly ...

endemic to what would be

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

during the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

living from 490—445.6 Ma, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

Proteoceratidae was named by Flower (1962). Its type is '' Proteoceras''. It was assigned to Michelinoceratida by Flower (1962); to Pseudorthocerataceae by Teichert et al. (1964), Sweet (1964) and Evans (1994); to Pseudorthocerida by Kröger and Isakar (2006); and to Orthocerida by Kröger et al. (2007). B. Kröger, M. S. Beresi, and E. Landing. 2007. Early orthoceratoid cephalopods from the Argentine Precordillera (Lower-Middle Ordovician). Journal of Paleontology 81(6):1266-1283

Genera

* '' Archigeisonoceras'' * '' Baykonuroceras'' * '' Cyrtactinoceras'' * '' Ephippiorthoceras'' * '' Euorthoceras'' * '' Gangshanoceras'' * '' Gorbyoceras'' * '' Isorthoceras'' * '' Liulinoceras'' * '' Mesnaquaceras'' * '' Metephippiorthoceras'' * '' Monomuchites'' * '' Orthonybyoceras'' * '' Paraproteoceras'' * '' Proteoceras'' * '' Pseudoliolinoceras'' * '' Stereospyroceras'' * '' Tofangoceras'' * '' Transorthoceras'' * '' Treptoceras'' * '' Ulmioceras''

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7251530 Orthocerida Ordovician cephalopods Ordovician cephalopods of Asia Ordovician cephalopods of Europe Ordovician cephalopods of North America Ordovician cephalopods of South America Middle Ordovician first appearances Early Cretaceous extinctions