''Strepsodiscus'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of very primitive

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

-like

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s from the early part of the Late

Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...

( Dresbachian Age) of

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 ...

. The coiled, slightly asymmetrical shells are about 3 cm in height. It is not known whether these are shells of

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

s (

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

s) or

monoplacophora Shell of Monoplacophora Monoplacophora , meaning "bearing one plate", is a polyphyletic class of molluscs with a cap-like shell, inhabiting deep sea environments. Extant representatives were not recognized as such until 1952; previously they wer ...

ns, which are more primitive mollusks. Bouchet & Rocroi (2005)Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., Valdes A. & Warén A. 2005. ''Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families''. Malacologia: International Journal of Malacology, 47(1-2). ConchBooks: Hackenheim, Germany. . ISSN 0076-2997. 397 pp. http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/imis2/ref.php?refid=78278 divide the Bellerophontoidea into 8 families listed Paleozoic molluscs with isostrophically coiled shells of uncertain position within Mollusca (Gastropoda or Monoplacophora) Knight, et al., 1960 included this genus within the

Cyrtolitidae Cyrtolitidae is an extinct family of monoplacophorans in the order Cyrtonellida. Genera * '' Cloudia'' * '' Cyclocyrtonella'' * '' Cyrtolites'' * '' Cyrtonellopsis'' * '' Kolihadiscus'' * '' Neocyrtolites'' * '' Paracyrtolites'' * '' Quasisin ...

, a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

assemblage of proto-gastropods and Tergomyan molluscs. ''Strepsodiscus'' may be too primitive to be a true

Species

Species within the genus ''Strepsodiscus'' are as follows

* ''Strepsodiscus major'' * ''S. minutissimus'' * ''S. paucivoluta'' * ''S. splettstoesseri'' * ''S. strongi''

References

* Knight, J. B., Cox, L. R., Keen, A. M., Batten, R. L., Yochelson, E. L., and Robertson, R. (1960). Systematic descriptions (Archaeogastropoda). In Moore, R. C. (ed.)

Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology The ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology,'' published from 1953–2007 by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas, then 2009–present by the University of Kansas Paleontological Institute, is a definitive multi-authore ...

. Part I. Mollusca 1, pp. 169–310. Geological Society of America and Kansas University Press, Colorado and Kansas. * Wagner, P. J. (1999). Phylogenetics of the earliest anisostrophically coiled gastropods. ''Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology'' 88: 1 - 132.

External links

Strepsodiscus
- Palaeos * A possible reference

* Info at Paleobiology Database

Cambrian molluscs Cambrian molluscs of North America Paleozoic life of Quebec Cambrian genus extinctions {{paleo-mollusc-stub