Ectenolites

Taxobox
name = Ectenolites
fossil_range = U-Cambrian -L Ordovician


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Cephalopoda
subclassis = Nautiloidea
ordo = Ellesmerocerida
familia = Ellesmeroceratidae
genus = " Ectenolites "
genus_authority = Ulrich and Foeste, 1935

Small, slender, cylindrial members of the Ellesmeroceratidae that resemble small but proportionally narrower "Ellesmeroceras". Septa, as typical for ellesmerocerids, are close spaced with shallow lobes on either flank. The body chamber is proportionally long, the shell itself slightly compressed. The dorsal side at the beginning of the shell, opposite the aperture and body chamber, is strongly convex so to produce a sense of endogastric curvature with the apex and siphuncle aligned.

The siphuncle in Ectenolites lies along the ventral side; is tubular, composed of short orthochoantic septal necks and thick concave connecting rings. The posterior portion is filled with irregularly spaced transverse diaphragms (dissepiments).

Ectenolites is one of two ellesmeroceratid genera known to have passed from the Late Cambrian into the Early Ordovician ( Gasconadian = L Canadian) and is found wide spread in eastern North America from the Tribes Hill of New York to the Tanyard of Texas.

References

*Flower R.H.1964, The Nautiloid Ordre Ellesmerocerida (Cephalopoda) Menoir 12, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Socorro, NM
*Teichert, C 1964; Endoceratoidea, in The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Vol K, Nautiloidea. Teichert and Moore Eds; GSA and U of Kansas Press.