Trocholites

Taxobox
fossil_range = M-U Ordovician
name = " Trocholites "


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Cephalopoda
subclassis = Nautiloidea
ordo = Tarphyceria
familia = Trocholitidae
genus = " Trocholites "
genus_authority = Conrad, 1838

"Trocholites"; a tarphycerid in the Trocholitidae from the Middle and Upper Ordovician with a gradually expanding, weakly ribbed shell; whorls in contact, dorsum slightly impressed; cross section depressed, venter and sides rounded; siphuncle close to but not at the dorsal margin.

The dorsal siphuncle of "Trocholites", and the Trocholitidae is somewhat anomalous and may indicate something about the orientation of the shell during life; placing the last septum high rather than midway or low, typical of most. The prevailing location in most coiled cephalopods is central or ventral, extremely ventral in most ammonoids.

"Trochoceras", of similar name, is a member of the Rutoceratidae in the Nautilida, and therefor only very distantly related back through the Bassleroceratidae.

References

*Trocholites, p K359-360, in Vol K of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology in the section on the Trocholitidae, pK359-K362, included in the Chapter on the Tarphycerida by Furnish and Glenister starting with page K343.