''Augustoceras'' is a genus of

nautiloid Nautiloids are a group of marine cephalopods ( Mollusca) which originated in the Late Cambrian and are represented today by the living ''Nautilus'' and ''Allonautilus''. Fossil nautiloids are diverse and speciose, with over 2,500 recorded species ...

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

s included in the order

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 t ...

and family

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 tha ...

. It is known form the Middle and Upper

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 Kentucky and Ohio in the US. Shells of ''Augustocers'' are slender, upwardly curved, fusiform, exogastric cyrtocones with subtriangular cross-sections, short chambers, oblique sutures, and subventral

siphuncles 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 ...

with simple internal radial actinosiphonate deposits. ''

Kindleoceras ''Kindleoceras'' is a genus of oncocerids belonging to the Valcouroceratidae, extinct nautiloid cephalopods that lived during the Middle and Late Ordovician. ''Kindleoceras'' is characterized by a gently curved or virtually straight shell, the ...

'' from the

Upper Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic 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 ...

of Ontario differs in having a more triangular cross-section and more numerous actinosiphonate rays in its siphuncle.

References

*Walter C Sweet, 1964 Nautiloidea-Oncocerida. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Part K Mollusca 3. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press Oncocerida Prehistoric nautiloid genera Middle Ordovician first appearances Late Ordovician extinctions Fossils of Georgia (U.S. state) {{paleo-nautiloidea-stub