Paraloxoceras

Paraloxoceras Temporal range: L Carboniferous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Subclass:	Nautiloidea
Order:	Pseudorthocerida
Family:	Pseudactinoceratidae
Genus:	Paraloxoceras Flower, 1939

Paraloxoceras is a genus of straight shelled, orthoconic nautiloid cephalopods, now extinct, that lived during the Early Carboniferous. Fossils have been found in Europe and central Asia; the type, P. konincki, named by Flower, came from Belgium.

The shell of Paraloxoceras is slightly depressed, with straight sutures. Septa are fairly close spaced. The siphuncle is located about halfway between the center and the venter with segments that are broadly expanded into the chambers. As typical for the subfamily, Paraloxoceras contains organic endosiphuncular deposits penetrated by a canal system similar to that found in actinocerids but differs in the having a protoconch characteristic of the pseudorthocerids. During grow of the animal the shell expands dorsally with the distance between the dorsum and siphuncle increasing while the separation between the venter and siphuncle remains at a more or less constant.

Related genera include Pseudactinoceras, Macroloxoceras, and Eusthenoceras.

See also

• List of nautiloids

References

• Sweet, W.C. 1964. Nautiloidea- Orthocerida in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part K. Geologogical Society of America and Univ. of Kansas press; Teichert and Moore (eds)
• Subfamily Pseudactinoceratinae -Paleobio db [1]
• Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. D.J. Jablonski & M.L. Foote (eds.). Bulletins of American Paleontology 363: 1–560. Sepkoski's Online Genus Database (CEPHALOPODA)