Gattendorfiidae Bartzsch & Weyer, 1987

Korn, Dieter & Weyer, Dieter, 2023, The ammonoids from the Gattendorfia Limestone of Gattendorf (Devonian-Carboniferous boundary; Upper Franconia, Germany), European Journal of Taxonomy 883, pp. 1-61 : 45

Family Gattendorfiidae Bartzsch & Weyer, 1987

[nom. transl. Korn (1994: 69), ex Gattendorfiinae Bartzsch & Weyer, 1987 ]

Diagnosis

Family of the superfamily Prionoceratoidea with the sutural formula E A L U I; external lobe lanceolate or slightly pouched; adventive lobe deep, V-shaped or lanceolate and pointed; the lateral lobe has a position on the umbilical wall. Conch in the juvenile stage subevolute or evolute; adult stage involute to evolute, but usually subinvolute. Shell ornament with fine to coarse growth lines, often with rursiradiate direction. Ribs occur in several independent lineages in varying morphology.

Included subfamilies

Gattendorfiinae Bartzsch & Weyer, 1987 ; Pseudarietitinae Bartzsch & Weyer, 1987.

Remarks

In the Treatise revision, Kullmann (2009) expressed a view of the family Gattendorfiidae that is clearly different from previously published concepts ( Bartzsch & Weyer 1987, 1988a; Korn 1994; Korn & Klug 2002). His scheme differs, on the one hand, in that the gattendorfiid and pseudarietitid clades are not considered as sister groups and, on the other hand, in that genera such as Acutimitoceras and Stockumites are also placed in the family Gattendorfiidae . The subfamily Acutimitoceratinae is treated there as a junior synonym of the family Gattendorfiidae .

Kullmann’s (2009) definition of the family Gattendorfiidae both contains and creates some problems. It states that the family is characterised by a “shell surface with rursiradiate growth lines or ribbing”; however, this only applies to some representatives ( Gattendorfia , Zadelsdorfia , Weyerella , Gattenpleura ). This does not apply to those genera that we place in the subfamily Acutimitoceratinae . The biggest problem with this scheme, however, is that it cuts the evolutionary line from Stockumites to Nicimitoceras to Imitoceras and, with the placement of the latter genus in the family Prionoceratidae , this would make the family polyphyletic.