Vologdinella is a poorly known genus of extinct animals of uncertain classification with small cylindrical shells. The animals are known from Middle Cambrian fossils from a Paleozoic limestone in the Chingiz Mountains of Kazakhstan. The genus was established by Russian paleontologist Zakhar Grigoryevich Balashov in 1962 for a single species, Vologdinella antiqua, which was originally described and illustrated as Orthoceras? antiquus by Aleksandr Grigoryevich Vologdin [ru] in 1931.

Vologdinella
Temporal range: Middle Cambrian[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: incertae sedis
Family: Vologdinellidae
Balashov in Ruzhentsev, 1962
Genus: Vologdinella
Balashov in Ruzhentsev, 1962[2]
Species:
V. antiqua
Binomial name
Vologdinella antiqua
(Vologdin, 1931)
Synonyms

Orthoceras? antiquus Vologdin, 1931

The genus was historically classified as a cephalopod, though it has since been removed from this group.[1][3] Vologdinella bears superficial resemblance to the Early Cambrian Volborthella. In the same work establishing the former genus, the two genera were classified within their own families – Vologdinellidae and Volborthellidae, respectively – within the order Volborthellida. Volborthella was later included in Agmata, an extinct phylum proposed by the paleontologist and geologist Ellis L. Yochelson [de]. Vologdinella was also considered for inclusion in the Agmata, or in questionable synonymy with Volborthella, but a later study determined that the genus was not related to them.[4][5]

See also edit

  • Olenecoceras – another genus named by Balashov, also was formerly believed to be a cephalopod

References edit

  1. ^ a b Barskov, I. S.; Boiko, M. S.; Konovalova, V. A.; Leonova, T. B.; Nikolaeva, S. V. (2008). "Cephalopods in the marine ecosystems of the Paleozoic". Paleontological Journal. 42 (11): 1167. doi:10.1134/S0031030108110014.
  2. ^ Balashov, Z.G. (1962). Отряд Volborthellida [Order Volborthellida]. In Ruzhentsev, V.E. (ed.). Основы Палеонтологии. Моллюски - Головоногие. I. Наутилоидеи, эндоцератоидеи, актиноцератоидеи, бактритоидеи, аммоноидеи (агониатиты, гониатиты, климении) [The basics of paleontology. Mollusks - Cephalopods. I. Nautiloidea, Endoceratoidea, Actinoceratoidea, Bactritoidea, Ammonoidea (Agoniatitida, Goniatitida, Clymeniida)] (in Russian). Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. p. 72.
  3. ^ Dzik, J. (1981). "Origin of the cephalopoda" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 26 (2): 161–191.
  4. ^ Yochelson, Ellis L. (1977). "Agmata, a Proposed Extinct Phylum of Early Cambrian Age". Journal of Paleontology. 51 (3): 437–454. JSTOR 1303675.
  5. ^ Yochelson, Ellis L.; Kisselev, Gennadii N. (2003). "Early Cambrian Salterella and Volborthella (Phylum Agmata) re‐evaluated". Lethaia. 36 (1): 8–20. doi:10.1080/00241160310001254.