Strepsodiscus

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Strepsodiscus
Fossil range: early Late Cambrian

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Paragastropoda

genus

Strepsodiscus major
, Strepsodiscus paucivoluta.

Strepsodiscus is a very primitive snail-like mollusc from the Early Late Cambrian (Dresbachian Age) of North America. The coiled, slightly asymmetrical shell is about 3 cm in height. Knight, et al., 1960 include it within the Cyrtolitidae, a paraphyletic or polyphyletic assemblage of proto-Gastropods and Tergomyan molluscs. Strepsodiscus may be too primitive to be a true gastropod.

[edit] References

Knight, J. B., Cox, L. R., Keen, A. M., Batten, R. L., Yochelson, E. L., and Robertson, R. (1960). Systematic descriptions (Archaeogastropoda). In Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part I. Mollusca 1, pp. 169-310. Geological Society of America and Kansas University Press, Colorado and Kansas.
Wagner, P. J. (1999). Phylogenetics of the earliest anisostrophically coiled gastropods. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 88: 1 - 132.