Ancyloceratidae [SEP] parent taxon
Ancyloceratidae
Ancyloceratidae is a family of heteromorphic ammonites that lived during the Early Cretaceous. Their shells begin as a loose spiral with whorls not touching which then turns into a straight shaft that ends in a J-shape hook or bend at end. Coarse ribbing and spines are common.
Ancyloceratidae is the type family for the Ancyloceratoidea and of the suborder Ancyloceratina. They are found in Lower Cretaceous, Upper Hauterivian to perhaps Lower Albian sediments.
Genera include:
- "Acanthoptychoceras"
- "Ancyloceras" - type
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of