Actinomorpha
''Actinomorpha'' is a genus of valcouroceratid, order Oncocerida, from the Middle Ordovician of central North America (Minnesota, Wisconsin), named by Rousseau Flower, 1943. The shell is breviconic, short and laterally compressed; the venter more narrowly rounded than the dorsum, having the effect of a modest keel in horizontal orientation. The shell is gibbous adorally, such that the body chamber is widest well behind the aperture. The siphuncle is ventral, which could also be indicative of a horizontal orientation in life, with broad, slightly inflated segments and continuous, radial, actinosiphonate, deposits. While ''Actinomorpha'' is a member of the Oncocerida; ''Actinoceras'' with its somewhat similar name belongs to the Actinocerida The Actinocerida are an order of generally straight, medium to large cephalopods that lived during the early and middle Paleozoic, distinguished by a siphuncle composed of expanded segments that extend into the adjacent chambers, in which ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Valcouroceratidae
The Valcouroceratidae is a family within the Oncocerida, nautiloid cephalopods from the middle and upper Ordovician, established by Rousseau Flower in 1945. Diagnosis Valcouroceratids are characterized by exogastric cyrtocones and brevicones that change during the life span from compressed to depressed or subtriangular in cross section, and which have ventral siphuncles that are cyrtochoanitic and which contain lamellar actinosiphonate fillings. The actinosiphonate fillings, commonly referred to as deposits, are radially inward projections of the connecting rings that extend longitudinally along the inner wall of the siphuncle and project forward as blades into the siphuncle interior from the septal foramina.(Sweet 1964, Flower 1950) Distribution Most valcouroceratids come from North America but Valcouroceras has been found in northern Europe (Norway) as well. (Sweet 1964) Genera The Valcouroceratidae includes 8 genera: *'' Valcouroceras'' *'' Actinomorpha'' *'' Augustoceras'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. The Ordovician, named after the Celtic Britons, Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, who were placing the same Rock (geology), rock beds in North Wales in the Cambrian and Silurian systems, respectively. Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed Stratum, strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian systems, and placed them in a system of their own. The Ordovician received international approval in 1960 (forty years after Lapworth's death), when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Union of Geological Sciences, Intern ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rousseau Flower
Rousseau Hayner Flower (1913–1988) was an extremely prolific 20th century paleontologist, known for his eccentric personality. Career Although trained as an entomologist, and a specialist in dragonflies and orthopterans, Flower began studying paleontology in the middle of the 1930s. He became an expert in North American cephalopods of the Devonian period as well as the stratigraphy of the early Paleozoic era. His main field was the nautiloids, which he studied intensely, often focusing on life habits and theoretical aspects of paleobiology, but he also penned many papers on fossil corals and other invertebrates. Flower described several hundred new fossil species and over 100 new genera. Eccentricities In the paleontology community, Flower's colorful behavior earned him admirers and enemies—whom he would occasionally "thank" in the acknowledgement sections of his papers or, in one case, in the name of a fossil species. His antics included mocking the alleged low-s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oncocerida
The Oncocerida comprise a diverse group of generally small nautiloid cephalopods known from the Middle Ordovician to the Mississippian (early Carboniferous; one possible member is known from the Early Permian), in which the connecting rings are thin and siphuncle segments are variably expanded (Flower, 1950). At present the order consists of some 16 families, a few of which, such as the Oncoceratidae, Brevicoceratidae, and Acleistoceratidae contain a fair number of genera each while others like the Trimeroceratidae and Archiacoceratidae are represented by only two or three (Sweet, 1964). Physical characteristics The shells of oncocerids are primarily somewhat compressed cyrtoconic brevicones. More advanced forms include gyrocones, serpenticones, torticones, and elongate orthocones and cyrtocones, reflective of the different families and genera (Flower, 1950; Sweet, 1964). The siphuncle in the Oncocerida is commonly located at or near the ventral margin. Connecting rings are mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed, and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation. Roughly a third of the state is covered in forests, and it is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" for having over 14,000 bodies of fresh water of at least ten acres. More than 60% of Minnesotans live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", the state's main political, economic, and cultural hub. With a population of about 3.7 million, the Twin Cities is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Other minor metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in the state include Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. The bulk of Wisconsin's population live in areas situated along the shores of Lake Michigan. The largest city, Milwaukee, anchors its largest metropolitan area, followed by Green Bay and Kenosha, the third- and fourth-most-populated Wisconsin cities respectively. The state capital, Madison, is currently the second-most-populated and fastest-growing city in the state. Wisconsin is divided into 72 counties and as of the 2020 census had a population of nearly 5.9 million. Wisconsin's geography is diverse, having been greatly impacted by glaciers during the Ice Age with the exception of the Driftless Area. The Northern Highland and Western Upland along wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anatomical Terms Of Location
Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provides a definition of what is at the front ("anterior"), behind ("posterior") and so on. As part of defining and describing terms, the body is described through the use of anatomical planes and anatomical axes. The meaning of terms that are used can change depending on whether an organism is bipedal or quadrupedal. Additionally, for some animals such as invertebrates, some terms may not have any meaning at all; for example, an animal that is radially symmetrical will have no anterior surface, but can still have a description that a part is close to the middle ("proximal") or further from the middle ("distal"). International organisations have determined vocabularies that are often used as standard vocabularies for subdisciplines of anatom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dorsum (anatomy)
Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provides a definition of what is at the front ("anterior"), behind ("posterior") and so on. As part of defining and describing terms, the body is described through the use of anatomical planes and anatomical axes. The meaning of terms that are used can change depending on whether an organism is bipedal or quadrupedal. Additionally, for some animals such as invertebrates, some terms may not have any meaning at all; for example, an animal that is radially symmetrical will have no anterior surface, but can still have a description that a part is close to the middle ("proximal") or further from the middle ("distal"). International organisations have determined vocabularies that are often used as standard vocabularies for subdisciplines of anatom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Siphuncle
The siphuncle is a strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. Only cephalopods with chambered shells have siphuncles, such as the extinct ammonites and belemnites, and the living nautiluses, cuttlefish, and ''Spirula''. In the case of the cuttlefish, the siphuncle is indistinct and connects all the small chambers of that animal's highly modified shell; in the other cephalopods it is thread-like and passes through small openings in the septa (walls) dividing the camerae (chambers). Some older studies have used the term siphon for the siphuncle, though this naming convention is uncommon in modern studies to prevent confusion with a mollusc organ of the same name. Function The siphuncle is used primarily in emptying water from new chambers as the shell grows. To perform this task, the cephalopod increases the saltiness of the blood in the siphuncle, and the water moves from the more dilute chamber into the blood through osmosis. At the sam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Actinoceras
''Actinoceras'' is the principal and root genus of the Actinoceratidae, a major family in the Actinocerida, that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. It is an extinct genus of nautiloid cephalopod that thrived in the warm waters of the United States during the Paleozoic era. Morphology ''Actinoceras'' are generally large, with typically straight shells reaching a meter or so in length (about 3 ft), with a blunt apex, and usually with a circular to subcircular cross section. . Shell characteristics The shells of ''Actinoceras'' are generally straight and long, although some are breviconic. Some are fusiform with the diameter decreasing from the anterior end of the phragmocone toward the aperture. Chambers are short and contain cameral deposits which are more concentrated apically and ventrally. Septa are close spaced, sutures are mostly transverse. The siphuncle, which varies in proportion to the size of the shell among species, is ventral, but not on the ventral ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Actinocerida
The Actinocerida are an order of generally straight, medium to large cephalopods that lived during the early and middle Paleozoic, distinguished by a siphuncle composed of expanded segments that extend into the adjacent chambers, in which deposits formed within contain a system of radial canals and a narrow space along the inner side of the connecting ring known as a paraspatium. (Teichert 1964) Septal necks are generally short and cyrtochoanitic, some being recumbent, some hook shaped. Most grew to lengths of about but some, like the Huroniidae of the Silurian grew significantly larger. Ecology The Actinocerida inhabited shallow to quite deep waters, where they alternated between swimming and lying on the bottom. They were predatory, and able to control their buoyancy to a greater degree than their contemporaries. Derivation The derivation of the Actinocerida remains enigmatic. They first appear late in the Early Ordovician (Cassinian Stage, late Floian) with the Georginida ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prehistoric Nautiloid Genera
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |