Cornulitida

Cornulitida is an extinct order of encrusting animals from class Tentaculita, which were common around the globe in the Ordovician to Devonian oceans, and survived until the Carboniferous.^[1][2][3] Organisms that may be the oldest cornulitids have been found in Cambrian sediments of Jordan.^[4]

Cornulitida Temporal range: Mid Ordovician–Late Carboniferous[1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cornulitid on a brachiopod valve (Upper Ordovician, SE Indiana)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	†Tentaculita
Order:	†Cornulitida Boucek, 1964
Genera
Cornulites Conchicolites Cornulitella Cornulitozoon Opatozoon Reticornulites Septalites Coralloconchus

Cornulitids had shells, and were subject to predation by boring and other means from the Ordovician onwards. Many survived attacks by predators.^[1] Several cornulitids were endobiotic symbionts in the stromatoporoids and tabulates.^[5][6][7]

Their affinity is unknown; they have been placed in many phyla, and have been considered worms, corals, molluscs and more.^[1] They appear to be closely related to other taxa of uncertain affinity, including the microconchids, trypanoporids and tentaculitids.^[1]

Gallery

• 
  Cornulitids on a bryozoan; Bellevue Member, Grant Lake Formation, northern Kentucky
• 
  Conchicolites sp. overview of the rings with spines, Lilla Karlsö, Sweden
• 
  Septalites septatus from the Silurian of Gotland
• 
  Cornulites cellulosus from Wenlock of Saaremaa, Estonia

References

1. Vinn, O. (2009). "Attempted predation on Early Paleozoic cornulitids". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 273 (1–2): 87–91. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.12.004. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
2. Vinn, O (2013). "Cornulitid tubeworms from the Ordovician of eastern Baltic". Carnets de Géologie: 131–138. doi:10.4267/2042/51214. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
3. Vinn, O; Wilson, M.A. (2013). "Silurian cornulitids of Estonia (Baltica)". Carnets de Géologie: 357–368. doi:10.4267/2042/53034. Archived from the original on 2013-12-27.
4. Olaf Elicki (January 2011). "First skeletal microfauna from the Cambrian Series 3 of the Jordan Rift Valley (Middle East)". Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists. 42 (42): 153-173.
5. Vinn, O.; Mõtus, M.-A. (2008). "The earliest endosymbiotic mineralized tubeworms from the Silurian of Podolia, Ukraine". Journal of Paleontology. 82 (2): 409–414. doi:10.1666/07-056.1. S2CID 131651974. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
6. Vinn, O.; Wilson, M.A. (2010). "Endosymbiotic Cornulites in the Sheinwoodian (Early Silurian) stromatoporoids of Saaremaa, Estonia". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 257: 13–22. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0048. Archived from the original on 2023-11-06. Retrieved 2024-01-31.
7. Vinn, O.; Mõtus, M.-A. (2012). "Diverse early endobiotic coral symbiont assemblage from the Katian (Late Ordovician) of Baltica". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 321–322: 137–141. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.01.028. Archived from the original on 2023-12-17. Retrieved 2024-01-31.