Cameroceras Temporal range:
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Partial internal mold of C. inaequabile, Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Cephalopoda |
Subclass: | Nautiloidea |
Order: | †Endocerida |
Family: | †Endoceratidae |
Genus: | †Cameroceras Conrad, 1842 |
Type species | |
†Cameroceras trentonense Conrad, 1842
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Species | |
See text. |
Cameroceras ("chambered horn") is an extinct genus of endocerid cephalopod which lived in equatorial oceans during the entire Ordovician period. Like other endocerids, it was an orthocone, meaning that its shell was fairly straight and pointed. It was particularly abundant and widespread in the Late Ordovician, inhabiting the shallow tropical seas in and around Laurentia, Baltica and Siberia (equivalent to modern North America, Europe, and Asia).[1]
Cameroceras exhibited a broad range of sizes, and some species were fairly large by extinct cephalopod standards. One species, C. turrisoides from the Boda Limestone of Sweden,[2] is estimated to have shell around 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length,[3] while that of C. rowenaense was about 70 centimetres (2.3 ft).[1] Some books and older scientific papers previously treated Cameroceras as the absolute largest nautiloid-grade cephalopod, with a shell length reaching 5.7 metres (19 ft)[4][5] or even 9.14 metres (30.0 ft).[6][4][1] More recent studies have indicated that the largest orthocone fossils do not belong to the genus Cameroceras, but rather Endoceras giganteum. Moreover, the maximum length estimate is based on a highly doubtful field observation.[5] Cameroceras and Endoceras are indistinguishable in most anatomical aspects, only differing in their shell texture.[7]
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