CMNH 3235, Sporadoceras?
Age: Late Devonian (Famennian) Rock unit: Cleveland Member
Locality: Beaver Creek, Amherst, Lorain Co., OH
Cephalopods are extant (living) marine mollusks characterized by tentacles attached to a cone-shaped body. The name cephalopod comes directly from the Greek kephalopoda, “head-feet.” Most fossil cephalopods formed a calcareous (made of calcium carbonate) shell around their conical body. The shell may be straight (orthoconic), curved (cyrtoconic), or coiled. As the cephalopod grows, the shell is sectioned and sealed into increasingly large chambers, with the cephalopod remaining connected by soft tissue in a thin tube called the siphuncle. Many cephalopods live today–cuttlefish, squid, and octopus, but only the nautilus has a coiled shell. (David and Mapes. 1996. “Phylum Mollusca, Class Cephalopoda”)
Figured and cited in House, M. R., M. Gordon, and W. J. Hlavin. 1986. J. Paleo.
Image by Jacob Kordeleski, CMNH Dept of Archaeology // Hawken School
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