suborder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
of
ammonoid
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
cephalopods, belonging to the
Ammonitida
Ammonitida is an order of ammonoid cephalopods that lived from the Jurassic through Paleocene time periods, commonly with intricate ammonitic sutures.
Ammonitida is divided into four suborders, the Phylloceratina, Lytoceratina, Ancyloceratin ...
, whose range extends from the Lower
Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...
to the Upper
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
. Shells of the Phylloceratina are generally smooth with small to large umbilici and complex sutures with leaf-like phylloid saddle endings and lobes with thorn-like projections.
Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology
The ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology'' (or ''TIP'') published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and ...
Part L Mollusca 4, Ammonoidea, 1957
Phylogeny
The Phylloceratina are most likely derived from the
Ceratitid
Ceratitida is an order that contains almost all ammonoid cephalopod genera from the Triassic as well as ancestral forms from the Upper Permian, the exception being the phylloceratids which gave rise to the great diversity of post Triassic ammon ...
Deineroceratidae, which is thought to have given rise early in the Triassic to the Ussuritidae. The Ussuritidae is the ancestral family of the Phylloceratina. The Ussuritidae extend through the Upper Triassic but not into the Jurassic, and gave rise to the Upper Triassic Discophyllitidae. The Discophyllitidae is the probable source for the L Jurassic - U Cretaceous Phylloceratidae and possibly for the L Jurassic Juraphyllitidae.
The Phylloceratina gave rise early in the Jurassic through the Phylloceratidae to the Lytoceratina, which in turn gave rise to most of the Ammonitina The Phylloceratidae also gave rise to the
Psiloceratoidea
Psiloceratoidea is a superfamily of Early Jurassic ammonoid cephalopods proposed by Hyatt in 1867, assigned to the order Ammonitida. They were very successful during Hettangian and Sinemurian. Last of them, family Cymbitidae and genera '' Hypox ...