Metabaltoceras

Metabaltoceras Temporal range: Ordovician
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Subclass:	Orthoceratoidea
Order:	Orthocerida
Family:	Baltoceratidae Evans (2005)
Genus:	Metabaltoceras Flower (1964)
Species
M. fusiforme M. minutum

Microbaltoceras is an extinct genus of actively mobile carnivorous cephalapod of the family Baltoceratidae, essentially a Nautiloid, that lived in what would be North America during the Ordovician from 490—466 mya, existing for approximately 24 million years.^[1]

Taxonomy

Metabaltoceras was named by Flower (1964). Its type is Metabaltoceras fusiforme. It was assigned to Baltoceratidae by Flower (1964); and to Ellesmerocerida by Sepkoski (2002).^[2][3]

Morphology

The shell is usually long, and may be straight ("orthoconic") or gently curved. In life, these animals may have been similar to the modern squid, except for the long shell.

References

1. ^ PaleoBiology Database: Metabaltoceras, basic info
2. ^ R. H. Flower. 1964. The Nautiloid Order Ellesmeroceratida (Cephalopoda). State Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Memoir 12:234
3. ^ J. J. Sepkoski. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 363:1-560

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