| | Palaeos Metazoa: Mollusca: Cyrtosoma: Nautiloidea: Nautilida |
 | | The Nautilida exhibit an infinite variety in degrees of coiling (with no deviations from the planispiral model), whorl cross sections, and surface ornamentations, but no overall trends in any of these features. |
 | | Although the ancestors of the Nautilida have previously been considered among straight-shelled ("Orthoceras") cephalopods which became gradually coiled nautilids (Schindewolt; 1942), or from coiled Silurian forms of the Barrandeocerine Tarphycerids (Barrandeoceratidae Flower and Kummel 1950 or Lechritrochoceratidae Dzik 1984, it is now generally accepted that the Oncocerida gave rise to the order Nautilida. |
 | | Teichert 1988 suggests that the best candidates would be the Acleistoceratidae and the Brevicoceratidae, both of whom have exogastrically curved or coiled shells and cyrtochoanitic septal necks, characteristic of early rutoceratids and ptenoceratids nautilida. |
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