''Trachyceras'' is a

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 ...

ammonoid Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

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 symm ...

belonging to the order

Ceratitida 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 ammon ...

. The type species is ''Trachyceras aon'', which was first described by

Georg zu Münster Count Georg Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm zu Münster (; 17 February 1776 – 23 December 1844) was a German paleontologist. Biography Münster was born on 17 February 1776 in Langelage, near Osnabrück. In 1800, he reportedly became a Prussian of ...

in 1834 as a species of ''

Ceratites ''Ceratites'' is an extinct genus of ammonite cephalopods. These nektonic carnivores lived in marine habitats in what is now Europe, during the Triassic, from the upper-most Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage (st ...

''. The genus includes many species found in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, and the United States. The family to which ''Trachyceras'' belongs, the

Trachyceratidae The Trachyceratidae is an extinct family of ceratitid Ammonoidea, ammonoid cephalopods. The Trachyceratidae makes up part of the superfamily Trachyceratoidea along with such families as the Buchitidae, Distichitidae, Dronovitidae and Noridisci ...

, has more or less involute, highly ornamented shells and ceratitic to ammonitic sutures.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Trachyceratidae Triassic ammonites Carnian genera Fossils of British Columbia Fossils of China Fossils of Italy Fossils of Germany Fossils of India Fossil taxa described in 1869 Prehistoric cephalopod genera Ceratitida genera {{Ceratitida-stub