Strepsodiscus
Temporal range: Late Cambrian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda (?)
Order: Bellerophontida
Family: Tropidodiscidae
Genus: Strepsodiscus

Strepsodiscus is an extinct genus of very primitive fossil snail-like molluscs from the early part of the Late Cambrian (Dresbachian Age) of North America. The coiled, slightly asymmetrical shells are about 3 cm in height. It is not known whether these are shells of gastropods (sea snails) or monoplacophorans, which are more primitive mollusks.

Bouchet & Rocroi (2005)[1] 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, a paraphyletic or polyphyletic assemblage of proto-gastropods and Tergomyan molluscs. Strepsodiscus may be too primitive to be a true gastropod.

Species

Species within the genus Strepsodiscus are as follows: [1]

References

  1. ^ 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. ISBN 3-925919-72-4. ISSN 0076-2997. 397 pp. http://www.vliz.be/Vmdcdata/imis2/ref.php?refid=78278