Plectronoceras Temporal range: Late Cambrian
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Life reconstruction of P. cambria | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Cephalopoda |
Subclass: | Nautiloidea |
Order: | †Plectronocerida |
Family: | †Plectronoceridae |
Genus: | †Plectronoceras Ulrich & Foerste, 1933 |
Species | |
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Plectronoceras is the earliest known shelled cephalopod, dating to the Late Cambrian.[1][2][3] None of the fossils are complete, and none show the apex or aperture of the shell.[3] Approximately half of its shell was filled with septa; 7 were recorded in a 2 centimetres (0.79 in) shell.[4] Its shell contains transverse septa separated by about half a millimetre, with a siphuncle on its concave side.[3] Its morphology matches closely to that hypothesised for the last common ancestor of all cephalopods.[3]
Plectronoceras is the type genus of the family Plectronoceratidae. Fossils of Plectronoceras have been found in the San Saba Limestone of Texas.[2]