Veneficoceras
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''Veneficoceras'' is a genus of the rod-bearing
Baltoceratidae Baltoceratidae is an extinct family of orthoconic cephalopods belonging to the subclass Nautiloidea endemic to what would be Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America during the Ordovician living from about 480–460 mya, exist ...
, an extinct cephalopod family with characteristics of the orthoceratoid Dissidocerida, found in
Cassinian The Cassinian is the latest age of the Canadian Epoch when thought of temporally and the uppermost stage of the Canadian Series when thought of stratigraphically. The Canadian, either as a series or as an Epoch is the name that has been given to t ...
age, Lower Ordovician, limestone in western
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.


Background

''Veneficoceras'' has a large tubular siphuncle with thin connecting rings that lies along the interior ventral margin. The endosiphuncular rod appears in vertical section to bifurcate into a larger ventral rod on the bottom and a smaller and shorter dorsal rod on top. In cross section a complete lining all around would probably appear, with a dorsally offset central opening. ''Veneficoceras'' is represented only by the type species, ''Venificoceras susanae'' of which there is only the holotype, a long portion of a phragmocone that came from a little over above the base of the Wahwah limestone in the Ibex area, western Utah. ''Veneficaceras'' is named for the witch in the Tajar stories by Jane Shaw Ward. Other genera whose names are based on the same stories are '' Tajaroceras''. '' Rangeroceras'', and '' Wardoceras''


References

* Stephen C. Hook and Rousseau H. Flower 1977. Late Canadian (Zones J, K) Cephalopod Faunas from Southwestern United States. Memoir 32, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources. {{Taxonbar, from=Q7919679 Prehistoric cephalopod genera Orthocerida